


Sharpening Excalipur

by Ysavvryl



Category: Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V
Genre: Dimension Travel, M/M, Not Canon Compliant - Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Post-Canon, Romantic Comedy, Swords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 05:06:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12523640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: Some things are said to be impossible, like sharpening Excalipur or turning rivals into lovers.  But heroes don't believe in the impossible.





	1. These Goofballs Saved the World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jaclynhyde](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaclynhyde/gifts).



Leaves rustled in the warm sunlight. Birds called through the trees and animals went about their normal ways. Even the monsters weren't intruding on this peace. Without the influence of Exdeath in the world, monsters had reverted back to animals or slunk away to hidden places. It was a peace that allowed this world, once two, to heal up and move on.

Though honestly, the peace wasn't that good for an adventure. It was good for a nap, which was exactly what Bartz planned on doing. And this tree was just perfect for it, with sturdy low branches spreading out for perfect support right here. The leaves were a lullaby and the sun was a blanket. For the moment, his left leg swung down so his bare foot caught the breeze. His soul never wanted to settle down in one place. But if he did, this patch of forest with this perfect napping tree was a tempting home.

Crush.

Bartz opened his eyes partway. Something or someone was walking through the grass nearby. Still, he wasn't worried. People greeted him joyfully wherever he went now. They recognized him as one of the world's saviors. And it couldn't be one of Exdeath's rare supporters. You knew when one of them were around; the hateful magic they bore could make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up even if that was the only indication they were around. Way out here in the middle of this forest, it was probably just an animal.

Closing his eyes again, he brought his foot back up on the branch. A hand clasped the tree, indicating that this was a someone. It'd be fine. And if it wasn't, he could save himself easily. No, his plan now was to take a nap and nobody was going to change that.

The branch he was lying on shifted. Maybe he should move, if only not to overload the branch? Bartz grumbled a bit, preparing to drop down at a moment's notice.

"BARTZ!" Whoever it was grabbed at his torso.

"Nnghuh?" His eyes flew open and before he could figure out the wild-looking face in front of him, he slipped to the side and crashed out of the tree. As he hadn't been too high up, it shouldn't have hurt much. But then the heavily geared person who'd grabbed him landed on top of him.

"It's great to see you again!" he said with a grin. "I've been looking all over for you; found everybody but you real easily, so it had me worried for a bit, but here you are!"

"Gilgamesh?" Bartz asked, still a bit dazed.

Last he'd seen this swordsman, he'd exploded himself within the depths of the Void to save him and his friends. It was something that couldn't be helped at the time, although Bartz always felt bad over how that had ended. But here he was again, alive and looking healthy. "Yup, finally found my way back here. It was quite an adventure, since it's real easy to make a wrong turn when using the Void as a road. But I knew I'd make it. I had to make it, had to see you again."

"It's good to see you again too," Bartz said. It was a welcome surprise, even with the painful surprise of falling out of the tree.

"And I want to take you back into the Void with me!" he said happily, smiling like this was the greatest thing in existence. From this angle, the sun made some kind of halo around his head. "Well, not into the Void itself, but we can go traveling the Void to reach other worlds and have all sorts of wacky hijinks and madcap adventures. It's something of been dreaming of, because I love you and I want to show you the wonders of the kind of life I lead."

...love? Bartz wasn't sure what to make of that. He'd never thought about Gilgamesh in that way. For the most part, he was the friendliest rival Bartz had ever known. But then, to use the Void to travel to new worlds and new adventures, that was something he had thought of. And dreamed of, and wished for. He had experienced that kind of adventure at one time. Yet he always wanted more.

Not to mention, Gilgamesh had always looked amazing when he showed off his swordsmanship.

"I know it's sudden and all to you, but it drives me on and kept me going while I kept trying to find my way back here," Gilgamesh said. "I don't care if you just want to tag along for the adventure right now. Just know that I will win you over one way or another. I decided that was the happiness I most wanted to seek. And, here I am, I made it back to you."

"Gilgamesh?" He'd been smiling all along, but the way it shifted at this made Bartz feel like he could take a chance on this. And how would he react...? "You're right, it is sudden, but seeing you like this, it just makes me think..." Bartz touched Gilgamesh's forehead and smiled. "I've heard some people say that love hurts, but I never expected I'd need a hi-potion after falling in love with you. Would you mind getting off me?"

Fortunately, he laughed at that. "Good one! Oh wait, did you get hurt? I'm sorry, I just couldn't hold back." Gilgamesh moved over to sit by him instead, fishing out the mentioned hi-potion from his travel bag. All of his various gear, mostly swords from the looks of it, clanked around as he did. "Here."

"Thanks," Bartz said as he sat up to drink it. It had a different taste than he was used to, probably with a heavier plant base. But then, who knew what world he'd picked this up on? "I had a feeling you'd be back and we'd be friends, so I was hoping you'd come soon. I didn't expect your feelings would be this strong."

"I wasn't really thinking it was love either," he admitted. "But in one world I was visiting, I talked with a witch about finding this world, and you specifically. She pointed out that I was talking and thinking about you so much that it seemed like love." He snapped his fingers. "And it was like that, I knew I was! And that's how I got back here! Well, not without a few more wrong turns, but that's just normal. But I know I found my way back to you out of love."

"Well, it's been about a year for me since I last saw you," he said. "I was starting to get bored, so this is just what I was looking for. Though, I should go say goodbye to the others, especially if we have no way of knowing if or when we'll get back here."

Gilgamesh scratched his chin. "Ah, that could be trouble. Faris said she'd skewer me with a ten foot pole if I came back around; I don't know why asking her if she was any more ladylike would make her threaten me like that. Then Krile and Lenna both suggested they'd take me to see Faris, so it could be trouble for me seeing them all again."

"Faris is Faris, so let her be who she is," Bartz said. "At least let me send off some letters first."

* * *

Eblan Castle was in a sorry state: stone walls crumbled into piles of rubble, towers fallen over, holes and weak floors everywhere. There wasn't a lot that had actually burned; Edge noticed that now. Outside of the castle, there was a large stretch of ground recovering from fierce fire. That was the battlefield where Eblan started losing ground. Which foe had been behind which assault?

However, that wasn't an important matter right now. The important matter was making sure their nation recovered, perhaps better than before. "It has walls of fire blocking direct passage, switches past trap floors, and invisible floors over what seemed to be nothing," he told the seneschal as they checked over the castle grounds. "It was the most fun I've had in a long time, and we can surely do better than that!"

The old man straggled after him, short of breath and nearly slipping on some loose rubble. This guy was no ninja, but he was good with numbers and bookkeeping. "I, I see, young sire, but..." Edge stopped and glanced back at him, giving him a moment. "Shouldn't we consider the comfort of guests and... those who work in the castle like me, who'd have a hard time getting around for daily chores?"

Edge shrugged. "Eh, we could also train up the maids, kitchen staff, and others in some basic ninja maneuvering so it becomes second nature." When the seneschal gave him a disbelieving look, Edge laughed. "That would be nice, but it would be more practical to have ordinary spaces for ordinary people. It'd show that that we can be friendly too. But surely we could dedicate a tower or two to an intense practice grounds. Maybe even the dungeon, like stretch it out to meet with the caves, rig it so the passages can be closed off to invaders or opened up to allow for another evacuation if needed."

"Y-yes, that could work." The seneschal took the moment to take a deep breath and relax.

Seeing that, Edge considered where to dart off to next. Then a trail of smoke caught his eye. "That can come later, once we've got the farms and smaller towns back on their feet, and the main part of the castle is in good shape. So we had a fair number of stonemasons available, but no blacksmiths?"

He nodded. "Yes, what smiths we have are out in the towns. We're shorthanded on tools as a result, and some work simply can't be done without a smith available. If it's possible, could you speak with the dwarves and ask...?"

Edge held up a hand to him. "If we don't have any blacksmiths here, then why is the forge going?"

"Huh?" Bewildered, he looked over to the underground area where weapons for the castle forces used to be made. "Strange."

"I'll check it out," Edge said, already heading over there. If this person thought they could simply move into an empty smithy, their intentions would need to be checked out. It might also be that one of the blacksmiths who'd gone elsewhere had returned. But it might also be someone who thought they could take over Eblan with no one in the ruined castle.

As the castle forge was mostly underground and away from the rest, it was in perfectly good shape as Edge silently moved down the stairs. A hot breeze moved past him; the heavy rumble of contained fire confirmed that the forge was indeed running. A metal tool was set aside, but no hammering could be heard. Instead, there was a hiss with a magical tone to it.

Edge was careful to move into a position that would be out of sight to someone working near the forge. Normally the extra noise would cover him too. But this blacksmith was no ordinary one. He stroked the glowing metal with his bare hands instead of hammering it. As the shape of the tool satisfied him, he then pulled his hand away, drawing the bright heat straight out of it. With some heat taken out, he then gestured for a handle to float over to him so he could secure it on. It was a simple shovel.

A different sound came through, the ragged breath of someone not used to a lot of walking at once. This person was worrisome, but Edge wanted to wait until the smith was at a less dangerous stage of work. But with the seneschal coming, the old man could prove a greater distraction. "Rubicante?" Edge asked. Some anger came back, but there was uncertainty now about how much the Elemental Lord was truly responsible for.

"Hello Edge," Rubicante said, polite as always. "Would you give me a moment to complete this? I don't want any faults, even within an ordinary tool."

"Fine," he said, leaning against work table where he could keep an eye on Rubicante and the main entrance.

The adviser's steps were obvious, even if the usual din of a smithy had been around. The old man put his hand against the wall; his eyes went wide when he looked over and saw the tall man with the distinctive red and violet cloak. "R-Rubi..."

"Hush," Edge said, waving him to keep back. The seneschal was more than willing to do so, drawing back to where things seemed less dangerous.

Rubicante made sure the handle was secure, than drained all of the heat from new shovel. An ordinary smith would douse it in a bucket of water, but he had control over the heat itself. When he then gestured to the forge, the flames briefly flared up as if reclaiming the shovel's heat. He then set the shovel aside with a few other new tools. "I do not mean any harm," he said, turning to face Edge.

"But what are you doing here?" Trust him or not? And what was he doing alive anyhow? Golbez, or more likely Zemus, had restored the four Lords back to life to defend the Giant of Babel. Edge couldn't imagine Zeromus doing that again, even if some piece of that soul of hatred remained.

"You need a blacksmith to get Eblan Castle back in shape, correct?" he asked. "Allow me to work for you. Consider it a penance, as I won't require payment for my work."

"That would help, but what are you doing alive?"

Rubicante shrugged. "I am not entirely sure why, but this awakening feels different from when we were called by Zeromus. We are the Elemental Lords, part of the world as a force of nature. I think that Nature itself called us back, but I was the only one not consumed by the hatred we were called by last time. As such, I can sense entities of the other elements as being alive, but they do not feel like my past peers."

It could be something to ask Cecil and his other friends about, if other Elemental Lords had come back into the world. But Rubicante was right about one thing: they needed a smith around the castle. Edge reached over for the newly made shovel, glancing at Rubicante before grabbing it. After a nod of approval, he took the shovel and checked on it. It seemed perfectly ordinary, a little warm but not dangerous to handle at this point. It was almost disappointing that he'd made something so normal. But then, the extraordinary things could come after life in Eblan was back to normal.

"All right, we'll take your offer," Edge said.

"But sire," the seneschal started to say.

He held up a hand to hush him; they could talk later. "Since you accept it as penance, you won't get any special treatment or payment until the castle is whole again. We'll rework those terms then."

"Thank you," Rubicante said, bowing to him. "Now, what tools are you most in need of?"


	2. Sword is the New Black

It had taken over four years and a great deal of work, but the people of Eblan accepted Rubicante now. He had his own quarters attached to the castle smithy, but he wasn't often there. As an elemental being, he needed far less sleep than humans. He was often in the smithy: working on parts for the training towers, making sure any tool from hammers to kitchen knives to shields were in good shape, figuring out special commissions from all over the world. When people heard that Eblan Castle had the Elemental Lord of Fire as a blacksmith, they would send him tests of his ability or requests for things ordinary skill could not craft.

However, he usually declined work that involved crafting weapons. Rubicante would take a request from someone who wanted one to protect a town from monsters, but only after checking out their story and making sure it would not end up hurting Eblan. Most of the kingdoms of the world were now friendly with each other, if not all of them. In this age, weapons shouldn't be as desired.

This, though, this was a personal project. The ninjas of Eblan would not work with any ordinary weapons. They wanted traditional craftsmanship that was made precisely for their style of fighting. Blades had to be sharp, light, and subtle. Since their advantage was in swift ambushes and graceful dodges, none of their weapons could hinder their movement. Things that could be readily hidden, such as shurikans, knives, and darts, were preferred. But in case they got into face to face combat, a good dependable sword was also needed.

And for his work, Rubicante wanted to create something perfectly suited for its intended owner. Something balanced just right for his height and preferred motions. Edge was louder and showier than most of the ninjas here. Brash too, although he was curbing his temper into something less unruly and short. So he could use something more distinctive and flashy. But like Edge itself, the sword needed to have true substance behind the bluster. Something about the sword should make an opponent underestimate how much it and Edge were truly capable of.

He had a passion for life too, an unbreakable spirit. Rubicante had watched him over the years. One time at a bonfire event, Edge had given a speech to the farmers, ranchers, miners, and other ordinary people of Eblan to bolster their spirits as they rebuilt their lives. They weren't empty words either. His hands had been dirtied up from work he'd done with them; his skin was tanned from being out and about doing things rather than just hanging back in the incomplete castle. He'd even pulled down his scarf for the moment, speaking to them as one of them rather than one of the ninjas.

There was little distance between Edge and his people at that time. Yet, there was still a distance between Edge and Rubicante. The young king did not mind sparring with him for training at times and seemed friendly in conversations. But there was still uncertainty and hesitation at times. If he would just let the old grudges go and finally see just why Rubicante was content with working here for far less than a master blacksmith should be owed...

The heated blade in is hands rippled when it shouldn't. While there was some need for mentally keeping the sword's intended owner in mind, it didn't help to get too focused on that. It wouldn't be as good now. Rubicante put the point on his palm, then increased the heat to crush it back down to a metal source. At this point, it would be best for him to take a break outside the smithy before returning to his assigned tasks.

As he was setting the forge to be safe while he stepped away, Rubicante felt a twinge of magic activate nearby. That was... space manipulation? There was no one but himself who should be able to set this smithy as a Teleport destination. Although, it could simply be an apprentice who'd lost their way. He shut the door of the forge and turned to see who would come.

A wall near the stairs ripped itself apart in one neat tear; a starry darkness of unearthly qualities was revealed within. Could it be something trying to come out of the Void? Perhaps it was after him, dissatisfied with him choosing a life of honest work. It was something that worried him, as an entity of hatred like Zeromus was not something that could easily be put down.

No unearthly entity came through. Instead, two men entered his smithy from the tear. Both of them were clearly warriors; Rubicante could see their experience in the strength of their bodies and the wear of their armor. One of them seemed like he could fit in at Fabul save for his loose brown hair. The other was eccentric, to say the least. He wore red tribal markings on his visible skin and carried at least six weapons in sight.

"I'm not sure this is where we meant to go," the marked one said as the tear repaired itself back to nothing.

The more normal warrior didn't seem concerned. "Well we did end up in a smithy this time."

"That's right! You!" The marked one stepped forward, with a glint of eagerness in his eyes rather than greed. "Have you ever heard of a sword with a blade made of water?"

"No," Rubicante answered. They would be skilled, but they didn't seem like a threat yet. "If you're looking for an Iceblade, this isn't the place to be searching for one."

He shook his head. "No, I've got at least a dozen ice blades in sword form. They're downright cheap in the right places and make for good trade fodder in others. No, I'm talking about a sword that has a blade made fully of water. It ripples and reflects just like water, but it's supposed to be an impressive weapon in spite of that."

"That sounds like it would take magic or ancient technology to make," Rubicante said. "It is interesting."

"Isn't it?" The marked one seemed gleeful at the mere thought while the normal man smiled at his enthusiasm. There was something extra to that smile. Were these two lovers?

A stray thought made Rubicante shift his cloak; sometimes he neglected to remember human habits until in the middle of a conversation like this. "Even so, such a creation would be particularly difficult for me. I am the Elemental Lord of Fire, Rubicante. As such, crafting with water is not a talent of mine."

"That's too bad," the normal man said.

"Still, you've got to be capable of crafting some interesting swords," the marked one said, enthusiastic in spite of his sword not being here. "Wonderful to meet you, Master Rubicante! I'm Gilgamesh, supreme sword collector and legendary hero! And this here is Bartz, my fellow traveler and legendary hero."

"We wouldn't be legends in this world, not yet," Bartz said.

"But they've got to know at the start so they know what to expect of us," Gilgamesh said.

Heroes had a particular glow to their souls, a distinction that beings such as himself could notice. Rubicante didn't believe it was a marking that came about at birth, though. In what he had observed of humans, it came to one whose thoughts and actions proved them to be heroes. Bartz was most definitely a hero; he had a glow as strong as Edge. Gilgamesh, not so much but the glow was there. With that in their souls, Rubicante felt they were trustworthy.

"I hate to disappoint you, but much of my work lately is of a mundane nature," Rubicante said. "You do not seem to be of this world," they both nodded to that, "so I'll let you know that you have arrived in Eblan Castle. A few years ago, the world was nearly razed to nothing by a being of hatred from the moon. This castle has been restored, but work is still ongoing and I must maintain the tools they need for that. I do have a few katanas, not as refined as I'd like but I can show you those."

"That's fine, maybe I'll commission you for something."

While he'd not kept any of those he'd tried to make for Edge, he did have some that were for varying degrees of ability among the Eblan ninjas. Most of them were new, drawn from other lands out of interest in ninjutsu. Rubicante picked out one he'd crafted for one of these apprentices. "Here's one; it's already assigned to someone and will go out once the squad leader arrives to distribute them."

Gilgamesh had introduced himself as a sword collector, a type that Rubicante usually found foolish. But this man took the katana out of its sheath and held it like he knew how to use it. "Ooo, your metalwork is very clean, barely shows any signs of work." He shifted it to look across the blade. "A beautiful shape too, ideal for a quick style that emphasized precision over raw power. Stealth too, the length and handle could be hidden with the right clothes. And this handle... this is made for a novice ninja, isn't it? It's a mite too long and far more deadly than a thief would use."

"That is precisely who that katana will be going to," Rubicante said, impressed. "You're no novice in handling that style of sword."

After admiring it a moment longer, Gilgamesh slid it back into the sheath. "Sure, I know all kinds of weaponry. But even if this is a novice blade, I'm not the kind of refined guy who could make best use of it. I'm more of a greatsword guy."

"I don't have any of those made at this time," he said, then paused. There were footsteps approaching, deliberate in sound. This was a ninja who wanted to be heard coming but had to come out of a silent stride ingrained with training. "Eblan trains ninjas, so I'm mostly working with their gear when I make weaponry."

"Sounds like we ended up in a really interesting place this time," Bartz said. "You have any training dungeons? Those are always fun to get through."

"It's not complete, so it would be interesting to get an outsider's opinion," Rubicante said, then pointed to Edge as he came in. "It's his designs mostly."

"That's right, but who're your friends here?" Edge asked.

"A pair of adventurers from another world," he answered. "This is Gilgamesh and Bartz; he may not look like it, but this is the King of Eblan, Edge."

Gilgamesh nodded. "Great to meet you! And you guys seem pretty good, so we don't mind saying we're off-worlders. We're here for swords and adventures!"

"Is your dungeon open to those from outside the kingdom?" Bartz asked.

Although his violet scarf covered his face below his nose as usual, Rubicante could tell Edge was smiling at this. "Not normally, but I could give a pass to Rubicante's guests."

Rubicante nodded. "I don't mind claiming that, as I am curious to see some of your collection."

"Sure thing, I've got some amazing swords," Gilgamesh said eagerly, tugging at his coat. "I still haven't convinced anyone who has a proper Excalibur to trade it, but I've got plenty of other interesting blades."

"It would be difficult to find someone willing to give up that sword to a collector," Rubicante said. Cecil certainly wouldn't.

"That does sound fun, but I did come here for a reason," Edge said. "And it has to do with the dungeon. Rubicante, one of the towers had a dragon trying to nest up there. If the dragon was willing to cooperate as a test of skill, I wouldn't mind it being up there. But it's been launching spurts of hail at the farms. Since one of the reports indicated that it could be weak to fire, I was going to ask you along to drive it off."

But to use his best fire skills, he would leave himself open to a weakness of ice. "You'll cover for me when I go for a full assault?" Rubicante asked.

"Of course, I'll keep it distracted."

"Mind if we come along?" Bartz asked. "A dragon on a tower sounds like good sport."

Edge chuckled. "Heh, I think we'll get along. Sure, thanks for the help."

"No problem," Bartz said. "Now let's go tackle a dungeon and dragon!"

* * *

This should be a strange time, with visitors from an entirely different world. The one guy, Gilgamesh, was certainly a strange one, unlike any Edge had met before. However, once they started traveling up the training towers, they seemed like they could be friends. Gilgamesh eagerly wanted to try out all the traps and devices, or at least know how the incomplete ones worked. Bartz fought like he could be a ninja, wielding a magma red sword in one hand and a seemingly decorative white sword in the other. But while he fought like one, Bartz was oblivious to traps and something of a klutz.

"I'm fine, just getting a buzz from all the blood rushing to my head," Bartz said, swaying upside-down from a noose wrapped around his ankle.

"This one isn't meant to hurt, just capture someone unwary," Edge said. It was a simple and old trick, but it was satisfying for how many people fell for it.

"Where was that rope even hiding?" Gilgamesh asked, glancing over the wall and window nearby. "I didn't see a hint of it!"

"Under the floor?" Bartz suggested. "I did feel the tile sink some, but wasn't quick enough to pull my foot back."

Crouching down by the trapped tile, Edge pushed it down some. "Yes, it's one of the pressure tiles. The floor sinks just enough to hide the rope and trigger some small hidden panels. Once it's stepped on, the opening of the panels hiding the rope trigger a pulley overhead to snap the rope closed over the victim's foot. When the rope is fully out of its slot, the panels all shut again."

"That is really well-hidden," Gilgamesh said, impressed.

Edge smirked. "And not all of these pressure tiles are trapped. The noose and a few other pressure-triggered traps are routinely moved around so students don't get used to the locations. Not only that, but some of the pressure tiles will be required to open doors and passages. We're still working that out. But when that's done, people going in will need quick reflexes to get out of a trap like this while trying to find the right opening tile."

"That's neat, but could one of you get me down now?" Bartz asked. Edge obliged and cut the rope while making sure he didn't crash on his head.

Rubicante was as usual, serious and not joining in on idle chatter. It always struck Edge as a bit odd since one didn't expect a being that represented fire to be like that. If he and Scarmiglione had traded personalities, or even him and Cagnazzo, they'd be more representative of their elements. But unlike the other Elemental Lords, Rubicante had a sincerity to him that made him trustworthy in spite of his past.

In spite of him being at least partly responsible for the fall of Eblan and the fate of Edge's parents.

Yes, there was always that lingering in Edge's thoughts. Rubicante was a good man, one Edge could almost consider a good friend. He'd be the sort one could confide in and know that he would keep quiet about it. Not only that, Rubicante had a lot more patience than any of Edge's other teachers had had with him. That often led to Edge failing at things when he tried to advance too quickly. And then Rubicante would explain where he went wrong with no malice or anger. Yet when Edge started thinking like this, that he could accept Rubicante and forgive him fully, there was the fact that he'd once worked for a being that existed only for hate.

"Is something troubling you, Edge?" Rubicante asked quietly, having gotten to his side without being noticed. And for a seven foot tall man with a bright cloak on to do that, he did have exceptional skills as a ninja too.

Or Edge was really letting himself get distracted. Silently cursing himself, Edge whispered back, "Nothing big, just have a lot on my mind lately."

At first, Edge thought this mentor would chide him on getting distracted. But then he said, "If you need to talk about something, you can always come find me at the smithy. I won't speak of something if you don't want it known."

"I'm sure of that," Edge said. The scuff of claws overhead reminded him that something more important was at hand. Turning the conversation to include the other two, he said, "The dragon should be just upstairs. You guys ready?"

"Sure enough," Bartz said.

"I don't think this one will be powerful, for a dragon," Gilgamesh said. "If it was, we'd be freezing our fingers off."

"I was thinking that myself since there's no ice here," Rubicante said. "But it's still strong enough to cause hail in the surrounding lands. It may be young."

"You think we can capture and train it?" Edge asked, ideas coming to mind. An ice dragon about would be handy for keeping the castle cool in summer; they'd always have ice available too, which could attract alchemists and the sort. But then what would they do with it in winter?

"Dragons are not easily tamed, especially one like this that can alter weather patterns," Rubicante said. "Most people who claim they tame dragons simply chain them up and keep them out of the way until needed."

"But that's imprisoning them, not taming," Bartz said.

Rubicante nodded. "Very few of them have true control over their dragons. Even the dragoons don't dare try taming dragons."

"That's a pity since a tame dragon would be great to have around," Edge said.

When they came out to the top of the tower, the air was cooler than one would expect with how sunny it was. That and the dragon's size indicated it was young, since it was merely as large as Rubicante. In truth, having four skilled fighters come up after it was overkill. When it beat its wings to flee, Edge signaled for the others to let it go.

"We're going to have to keep an eye on where it decides to nest, but one dragon in the area won't be much of a nuisance," Edge said. "Maybe we could herd it to the caves we retreat to? It could be nice to have an ice cavern around."

"As long as there's just one dragon, I agree on leaving it be once it's away from towns," Rubicante said.

* * *

Since all they'd done was drive off one young dragon, it wasn't enough to celebrate or anything. But it was enough for the ninja king to decide they were worthy guests and allow them to stay in a castle guest room while they were in Eblan. It included meals even, and Gilgamesh wasn't about to turn down free food of any kind.

As dinner wound down, Gilgamesh got to show off his sword collection to Rubicante. He always equipped at least four in case he needed to power up to his stronger form (though it was usually more like eight to cover a range of elements and enchantments). Much of his collector pieces were kept in inventory storage. "This here is a dancer's epee, with is different because you usually hear of dancers using daggers, scarves, or purses."

"That accounts for all the frills," Edge said, watching in interest.

"And they sparkle, which is the important thing!" Gilgamesh said, holding the sword out and twirling it. It rolled easily in his hand; the ribbons attached to the hand guard whirled and shone. "It catches an opponent's eyes, drawing them to the dancer's hand when the dangerous bit is the bladed end."

Edge rubbed his chin on seeing this. "Ah, so it might look goofy, but it's actually a clever trick."

"It could be more useful than polish used for brief distractions because fighters would be less used to the ribbons as distractions," Rubicante said, setting down a foil that Gilgamesh had bought off a promising champion of a youth's fencing tourney. He could call it a champion's foil in complete honesty and the young fencer got the funds to seek out an apprenticeship to a knight. "Actually, I've been wondering about the white sword that you've been using, Bartz."

"Well it is technically part of his collection even though I'm using it," Bartz said, detaching the sheath from his belt. The sheath was white and pale blue with a pattern of circles carved into the leather. "It's a wedding sword."

"A wedding sword?" Edge asked, surprised as most people were when they heard about it.

Gilgamesh nodded. "Yeah! It's like a wedding ring, but a sword. It's one of the most unique swords in the collection; we've only run into that one culture that did weddings with swords in all of our travels. And believe me, we've been in all kinds of worlds and civilizations."

Bartz drew the sword out. "You can look at it if you want, but it dulls the moment it's handled by someone that hasn't sworn a marriage oath on it, or if that oath gets broken. Even so, it's one of our most useful swords since it rarely gets resisted."

"And if its magic gets resisted, then we know we should try talking things out instead," Gilgamesh said.

Even with as stoic as he was, it was clear that Rubicante also had a love of swords. He came around the table to look over the wedding sword in Bartz's hand first. "This is exceptional craftsmanship, both in the physical and mystical aspects of it. The culture and smith that could produce such a weapon must have a strong faith in the power of love."

"It was something of a pain to convince them to let outsiders participate in such a ceremony, but we proved ourselves to them," Bartz said.

"You two are married?" Edge asked. Thankfully, he was curious about it rather than taken aback. Maybe he was even a bit jealous. Although Rubicante might be more jealous given that he wasn't actually looking at the sword for a moment.

As usual, Bartz didn't notice that kind of thing. "Of course. He really wanted one of these swords once he heard about them and was willing to take a dull one just to have an example. I suggested that we should go through the ceremony since by that point, we had been traveling together so long and there was no doubt between us. He nearly fainted at that, but he does get over-dramatic sometimes."

"Well I was so excited that I nearly forgot to breathe," Gilgamesh said, feeling light at that reminder. But he didn't want to make the other two uncomfortable. "Thankfully, I remembered just in time. Oh, and if you want to talk about swords that go dull for unusual reasons, I've got one here that no one has been able to sharpen."

"This one's sharpness is due to its magic being woven alongside the taking of a serious oath," Rubicante said, touching the wedding blade's handle respectfully. As stated, it went dull and mundane only to regain its usual edge and gleam when he removed his hand. "Some materials would be difficult to keep sharp."

Gilgamesh shook his head as he searched for it. "It's not the material, it's a steel blend that shouldn't lose its edge easily. Ah, it was..." he shifted around his inventory, making a few clanks and clatters as he did. "Um... ah, there it is! This is Excalipur." He brought the broadsword out and set it on the table.

"Ah, one of those copies of Excalibur without..." Rubicante paused, staring at the blade. Then he picked it up. "I've seen Excalibur copies that look exceptionally good but lack holy blessings and unearthly craftsmanship. But this is a holy sword, somehow."

"Cheap knockoffs are usually called Excalipoor, at least by me," Gilgamesh said. "Since I've been seeking Excalibur as the ultimate piece of my collection, I've seen dozens of Excalipoors. But even if it's not the legendary sword, Excalipur here is a unique exception. It goes out of its way to be useless in battle."

Rubicante shifted the sword around, examining it from several angles. "The shape of the blade should keep its edge well. It's well-balanced with a good heft; it should hit like a red giant even in the hands of someone without much training. Is it exclusive to harming undead?"

"As far as I can tell, it's not exclusive to anything," he said. "It doesn't matter who's using it against what opponent: it might leave a faint dent but nothing more."

When he tried to hit the wooden table with it, it left a faint indentation that was no different from the normal scratches of wear around it. "This is strange. Do you mind if I examine it in my forge? I'd like to see if I can put an edge to it."

It was always funny to watch blacksmiths get frustrated with Excalipur here. But this time, Gilgamesh had something else in mind. "Sure, go ahead and try. I'll want it back before we go, but you can work with it until we feel like moving on."

"Of course, thank you."

Later that evening, he and Bartz went to their guest room for the night. It wasn't a lavish room as one might expect of a castle. A fire crackled in the gated fireplace to keep things warm, while a carpet, a wall tapestry, and heavy curtains kept things comfortable. Or given that this was a nation of ninjas, they could be hiding passages or spies. But nothing here was exceptionally ornate or obviously expensive. It might have to do with how this kingdom was rebuilding after nearly being wiped out.

"Nice place, not too gaudy," Bartz said, kicking off his shoes before flopping onto the bed.

"They are martial to some degree," Gilgamesh said, noting that the fire poker would be better than usual in a fight. "Thankfully not absurd about it. I could like this place. But, did you notice how things were between the king and the smith?"

"They seem like good friends," Bartz said.

"Of course you wouldn't notice," he said, going to lean on the backboard of the bed. "But I did. I think there's some sparks there just below the surface."

Bartz frowned up at the ceiling. "Uh, yeah, the guy's a blacksmith and they're always surrounded by sparks. More literally this time since he's an actual being of fire."

Gilgamesh groaned and put his head on his arms. "No, not that! I mean, it's true, but not what I'm saying."

"So what are you saying?" he asked, looking over at him.

"I always got to be straight forward with you, don't I?" Gilgamesh smiled. "I think those two could be in love but something's getting in the way of them admitting it to each other. Maybe even themselves."

Bartz raised an eyebrow at that. "Are they? It didn't look that way to me."

"Not everyone is obvious about being in love," he said. "Most people aren't. Even I did not believe it of myself until someone else pointed it out to me. They appear to have this mentor-student friendship thing going, but Rubicante always had his eyes on Edge in the training tower. And when you were telling them about the wedding sword, he had this longing look and glanced at Edge, but quickly looked away. He's probably got some hangup about not being human, or maybe he'd outlive a human and is keeping silent over committing himself to someone who'd grow old and die while he didn't change."

By this point, Bartz had sat up and moved closer. "You could tell all that just by how he reacted to the sword?"

"That and more little things, like how he went right to Edge's side when he seemed bothered about something." Gilgamesh tapped the backboard, thinking of how to explain it more to Bartz. "And Edge seems like the sort who will fight recognizing being in love. He is a smooth talker and can move swiftly from one target to another, as when he was flirting with the maids before dinner. He wouldn't do the same to Rubicante or either of us, so this world probably still has some stigma over chasing after the same gender."

"It can't be too strong or they would've have balked more over moving us to a single bed room," he pointed out.

He nodded to that. "I'm glad for that. But discount that stigma for a moment. Edge does look and speak differently to Rubicante. There is a true respect there, unlike when he was teasing his old adviser. Maybe he's not exactly in love right now, but I have a gut feeling that if Rubicante were to confess his actual feelings, Edge would be more likely to accept him over anyone else. Edge isn't about to recognize it on his own; maybe there's something in their past that gets in the way, or maybe he just hasn't given it any thought. But then, Rubicante will probably just keep silent and a love between them has no chance at all to become real."

"That's unfortunate, but we don't really know," Bartz said. "We just met them today."

Gilgamesh straightened up and held up a finger in determination. "But if there's this chance, why don't we see if we can get them together? With a few nudges and hints, they could open up to each other and become more than they dreamed of being!"

"I guess, or we could get them mad at us," he said, then shrugged. "Eh, but why not try? We could excuse sticking around on wanting to help them with the training towers and waiting on him to try sharpening Excalipur."

"That's the ticket! It'll be another thing off the old bucket list."

"That's on your bucket list?" Bartz asked, amused at the idea.

"Of course it is!" He pulled out the journal he kept such ideas in to point it out. "Here we go, 'Help someone else express their love so they find happiness like I have with Bartz.' It's right between 'Kick Odin's ass' and 'Become a big enough legend that I become a summon spirit'."

"If you put it that way, I'd like to see them get together too," he said, then gave him a quick kiss. "I beat Odin, you just have to kick him really hard."

"Let's do that one together too if the chance comes up," Gilgamesh said.

* * *

Sharpening didn't require heat unless the edge was damaged. Excalipur's edge looked just fine. When he felt along it, Rubicante didn't notice any bumps or chips. It still wouldn't cut. Getting it to tear a leaf took more pressure than should be necessary. He took up the sharpening stone and carefully ran it along the blade, trying not to damage it.

After an hour in which nothing seemed to change, Gilgamesh dropped in to see how he was doing. "It's actually pretty tough," he said when told about the lack of progress. "I had one smith get frustrated and throw it into a stone wall. Didn't chip it at all."

"For being incapable of acting as a sword, it is a remarkable one," Rubicante said. "Do you know who made this? Or why?"

He shook his head. "I wish I knew. I found it in a setting that would have been perfectly suited Excalibur: tucked away in a cave deep in the wilderness with a shaft of sunlight falling on it, stuck in a stone pedestal, not a single monster dared come close. But after I pulled it and used Identify to make sure, I found that it wasn't quite right."

"My Scan spell claims that it should be one of the most powerful weapons out there," he said.

"Right! I tried asking around about it, but nobody knew anything for certain about it. The closest thing was a legend of a blacksmith that was so desperate to forge a legendary weapon that he summoned an unknown entity for inspiration and went mad. Although that was being told in that country, there was no way to confirm that this sword is what he finally created. I've even given it to heroes that Excalibur accepted; doesn't change Excalipur at all."

"It'd be easier to figure out within the world it originated in," Rubicante pointed out. "Here, we can only study it as it is now."

Gilgamesh shrugged. "Well nobody else wanted it. It's so frustrating for me to come across the Excalipoors, but that one is a vital piece of my collection."

"I suppose a talented oracle or psychic might be able to delve into the sword's history better," he thought aloud. Maybe someone in Mysidia could do that.

"Huh, haven't tried that out yet," he said. "Anyhow, I was curious: how does a guy like you end up as a blacksmith?"

"It's a hobby for the most part," Rubicante said.

Taking up a stool to sit on, it seemed he meant to chat for a while. "True, but you're basically a god, right? Since you're the manifestation of fire in this world."

He shook his head. "Not quite a god. We have been called children of the crystals; we are beings of the world. I cannot say anything more than that, especially to an outsider. While some of my peers disliked humans, I am quite fond of you all. Thus I do not mind what seems like mundane work to be around humans."

"You seem particularly fond of Edge," Gilgamesh said.

"What do you mean by that?" Rubicante asked. For some reason, that comment made him nervous. Nobody was supposed to know; nobody could know.

From his smile, he was having fun with this. "I mean you have a crush on him, don't you? I can see it in the way you quietly watch him and how quickly you went to ask if something was wrong when he got distracted."

He should just stay calm, not reveal how accurately that hit. "I've been a mentor of his for a few years now, trying to temper that attitude of his so his rashness doesn't get him in trouble. It's working slowly. Of course I'll watch him in a situation like that."

"The attention you give him doesn't seem mentor-ly to me," Gilgamesh insisted. "Don't tell me: are you one of the sort that'll be all, I can't be with him because I'm not human and we have differing life spans that will be too painful to deal with? But is that really worse than having to sit at the sides and suffer silently while you won't let yourself speak up?

"And he's probably going to end up married to a lady at some point, since people expect that of royal figures. I bet people are already pestering him about that. Then he'll eventually be gone anyhow and you won't have known happiness that whole time. Isn't it better to have some happiness instead of all loneliness?"

"He is being bothered about choosing a bride," Rubicante admitted. "He complains to me about it sometimes since he knows I won't bother him for it. He says he doesn't want to be tied down, yet he still flirts with any girl he runs across. Though, he never seems to pursue them after that."

"Doesn't that hurt you when he flirts so carelessly?" he asked.

Rubicante narrowed his eyes at him. Why was he poking his nose into this? It was supposed to be something no one knew about. Yet, it was a silent suffering.

"He probably doesn't mean much by it," Gilgamesh said, looking thoughtful. "Probably thinks it's nice to make them smile when he can. But if he hasn't pursued them, and if he's already confiding in you about personal matters, you must have a chance they don't at winning his heart. You'll have to do something about it, or else you may find it near impossible to put down the doubt over if you had a chance at all. At least if he turns you down, you can settle the matter in your heart once and for all."

"You're a strange man," Rubicante said. Strange, but more insightful than he seemed.

"Just about everyone says that of me," Gilgamesh said, proud of it.

"I imagine so. But what goes on between the king and I has nothing to do with you. It's nothing to concern yourself with, nothing at all."

"At least give it some thought. Anyhow, I decide what concerns me and this has. But I've spoken my piece and now it's up to you. But if you want any help, I'll be happy to give you a hand." He sounded sincere about his offer.

"Thanks for the concern, I suppose," Rubicante said, hoping that would end the discussion.


	3. Edge Has a Bad Day

The day started with a rooster flying into Edge's bedroom and raising a ruckus. It got more absurd when breakfast got interrupted by a political councilor rushing in frantically with news that an army was gathering in sight of the castle. As he knew nearly all of the world's leaders, Edge felt it was silly from the start and sent out only a single ninja to scout things out. There was no one in the world who would have the desire to start up major conflicts again. He was proven right when it only turned out to be a bunch of goblins gathering for reasons best left unsaid.

By the time afternoon rolled around, Edge felt more annoyed then usual when the seneschal walked in looking hopeful. "What are you up to today?" he asked.

"Just my usual work, young sire," he said, giving a bow that was almost dismissive.

As if he needed more reasons to be annoyed. "Huh, well would you stop calling me young sire? It makes me look like a kid who doesn't take things seriously."

"You do tend to joke around a lot, y..." he paused, having to think about it, "sire."

"I've been getting things done for four years, so I'm not goofing off," Edge said. "Then what are you here for?"

After taking a deep breath (which got Edge worried), he said, "I know we have spoken on many occasions before about finding a queen for you..."

"And I've said many times before that I have no interest in marriage yet," Edge said, hoping to cut this one off before the old man really got going. It wasn't the day for tolerating that kind of drivel. Trying to recover some of his usual stride, he added, "I'd have to learn not to flirt with whatever pretty girl I see and I haven't met one that I'm willing to do that for."

"You really should be considering it," he said, always sticking to that point. "I don't think you realize the gravity of ignoring that part of your life. Anyhow, there are two maidens who have come to this castle in hopes of courting you. I'd like to bring them in to speak with you."

Edge rubbed his forehead. He didn't mind talking with woman. Actually, he liked it, especially when they were happy and smiling. But he never felt comfortable with one wanting to talk seriously about love and life together and all that nonsense. "Aren't I supposed to be the one going out to ask to court a lady?"

"You've never shown any interest in doing so, so it's good to see these young ladies showing initiative and coming to you," the seneschal said.

For a moment, he considered just firing the seneschal. The old man would keep nagging him until he agreed, not letting him get any other work done. It was tempting, especially today, but he had to refrain. Even when he was a pest, he was instrumental to the day to day business of running a nation. If Edge got rid of him now, he'd have to give up on training for himself and the training he gave other ninjas. Even replacing him with other advisers would be difficult due to his experience, hard work, and loyalty. And he wasn't really a bad person; it was just that today was already stretching Edge's patience.

"In that case, sure, I'll speak with them both for a bit," Edge relented. "But I do have other things I need to be doing today."

The seneschal was elated; Edge didn't feel any less annoyed. "Excellent, I'll invite them on in!"

"I'm in for it now," Edge muttered to himself. Two ladies, so he'd have to turn at least one down. Maybe they'd have some other potential beaus? Because it'd be better to redirect them than to outright break their hearts, and there was a good chance that they were taking a shot at being a queen rather than being his partner. He buried his face in his hands. "Father, I wanted to ask how you and mother got together, figure out some better way of doing this..."

By the time the seneschal came back with the two young ladies, Edge had gotten his wits composed enough to deal with it as best he could. He smiled at them and said, "Hello, today's brighter already." It wasn't his best material, but it was enough to make one of them smile bashfully.

The seneschal introduced them to each other. The bashful one was Lana, a young woman with no ties to nobility. Instead, she took care of chickens and a farm with her family. She was pretty with her long black hair in a neat braid, although nothing remarkable. Clearly, the adviser was willing to take any chance to get Edge married soon. The other one was Ream, one who was nobility and already trained by her prestigious family in ninjutsu. She was practically a safe choice, even advantageous since her family's fighting style had some secrets they might be willing share with a son-in-law. Since she was nobility, she was richly dressed to look her best even for this informal meeting.

"Now what brings you lovely ladies here?" Edge asked after the introductions, even though it was obvious.

"You don't have to bother with her," Ream said, making Lana look down. "We spoke for quite some time at my family's estate recently, so I know that I am the perfect woman for you. I am as much of a master ninja as you and I will get rid of anyone who tries to get close to you." Then she had a dagger in her hand.

Nobody was going to hurt a woman around him without paying for it, not even another woman. Edge quickly jumped over his desk to neutralize Ream. As he did, Ream made to attack Lana. However, Lana reacted quicker, kicking Ream out of her attack. It didn't entirely stop her, but by then, Edge was there and could stun her as planned.

"Oh my..." the seneschal said, backing up with his hand to his mouth in shock.

"I, I'm sorry," Lana said, flustered as she stepped back too. "I don't mean to cause trouble, um..."

"No need to apologize for defending yourself," Edge said. He took the knife from Ream and threw it aside before grabbing both her arms to further incapacitate her. "Go get some guards to throw her in a cell. I don't need to know anything more about this Ream; I don't want to see her again."

"Yes, sire," the seneschal said, thankfully shocked enough that he forgot to be demeaning with it. He hurried out to do as ordered.

It might cause some problems with her family, but Edge would deal with that later. For now, he had to figure out what to do with Lana. "Actually, nice work in stopping her. She's not as good as me, but I know she's skilled and it would take someone even more skilled to disrupt her like that. Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

"Oh, I'm not trained as a ninja," Lana said, still embarrassed. "I just know a few things, self-defense, dealing with goblins or vagabonds trying to steal chickens."

"You must have the safest chickens around," Edge said, which was enough to make her smile.

Once the guards arrived to take Ream away, a maid showed up with tea and snacks for three people. Edge had said that he didn't want to take long, but the seneschal clearly had other ideas. At least the old man left the room once things quieted down. Edge could find something to deter Lana with, then slip out to do something else.

One thing that made it tougher was that she was nervous the whole time. She would fidget with the cookies they had for snacks, realize what she was doing and take a dainty little bite, then set it down and end up twiddling her fingers. Edge tried his best to be casual and put her at ease, but then he was the king and she was a fairly simple farmgirl.

"I'm sorry, but we've been talking for a while and I'm not quite sure where we've met before," Edge said, then nearly had to bite his tongue to hold back a flirtatious line to go with it. He was trying to gently nudge her away, not draw her closer.

"Um, it's not a big deal," she said, although she flinched at the realization that it might not be a big deal to him. "It was at the spring egg festival when you dropped by my town. Everybody was surprised, especially me when I learned that the man who said such nice things to me was the king. We didn't really exchange names or anything, so I shouldn't have thought much of it. But I thought maybe you saw something special in me and so I decided to come out here. I was really surprised that you agreed to see me right away, even with the other girl. Um, I don't mean to be a bother, I just..."

Edge felt really bad since she was nearly in tears now. He wanted to keep her from being upset, but at the same time, he didn't want to give her unreasonable hopes again. But what did he say? "You're not a bother," he started with. "I'm impressed that you had the courage to come out here by yourself. Still, I'm not currently looking for a relationship. I'd rather start with someone I know decently well and there aren't any ladies I know well that I'm interested in. But since you came all the way out here, would you like to take a job working with the chickens living in the castle?"

"Oh, you'd do that?" she said, cheering up a little. It would give her some hope in that she'd stay here and possibly get to know him. But maybe in getting to know him, this infatuation would weaken.

Edge smiled. "Sure. In fact, they could really use the help since we've had trouble with the chickens running around the castle today. I got woken up by a rooster crowing in my room on the second floor."

"That's very odd," she said. "How did he get up there?"

"Beats me," he said with a shrug. "Come on, I can introduce you to the folks who should be keeping track of them and see if they've found them all."

"All right," she said, smiling. On learning that they still were missing some chickens, Lana was quick to offer assistance in rounding them back up if she had someone familiar with the castle to go with her.

Edge used that opportunity to leave her and find somewhere that the seneschal couldn't come and bug him. That brought him to the smithy; it was usually too hot here for the old man. As usual, Rubicante was alone down there. Edge had asked him on multiple occasions if he wanted one of the former castle blacksmiths back to help him. But Rubicante wanted to handle all smithing related tasks of the castle on his own.

He even had time for personal projects, like the Excalipur and whatever sword he was trying to forge with magic now. Or rather, unforge as he was melting it back to a bar of steel. Once he was able to set it aside, he said, "You seem to be in a foul mood."

"Is it so obvious?" Edge asked, already sitting on a bench nearby. He sighed and put his head against the wall. "I've had a rotten day so far: woke up rudely by a chicken, constant fuss raised over stupid things, and now it's obvious the seneschal is desperate for anything to get me married since he brought in two girls without questioning them at all."

"Were they bad?" he asked, going over to pick up some kitchen knives and a sharpening kit. He'd still listen since it was a simple task for him.

"One was really bad," he said. "She's clearly a psycho. While there would be some political advantage to marrying her, she went and attacked the other girl just for being there. I threw her in prison and now I have to negotiate with a ninja clan with the status of nobles to keep her away from me."

"Are you going to need a guard?"

Edge frowned at that. "I hope not; I can take care of myself. The other girl, well she's nice and pretty, but that's about it. She's crazy about chickens. When I asked her if she does anything aside from caring about chickens, she mentioned that she plays badminton, with birdies she makes with chicken feathers. It did let me distract her by having her help with the loose chicken problem we seem to have today."

"I've heard a few outside, but they run from me," Rubicante said.

"I keep stumbling over them," Edge said.

At that, Rubicante looked over at him. "You are really in a bad mood if that doesn't inspire a joke."

"Sorry, I don't mean to dump stuff on you," he said, rubbing his forehead. "You get me a lot more than the rest of the court."

"That and I'm not trying to force you into a different mold," he said, turning back to his sharpening.

He nodded to that. "Yeah, you've been a good friend." After a moment, he tried figuring out how to deal with Lana again. "The chicken girl means well, that much is clear. But I don't think she'd be good as a queen of Eblan. I swear, she apologized for nearly everything and got all teary easily. Even if she's hiding some brilliance, I don't know if I could deal with that constantly. I felt horrible for turning her down and getting her upset on accident. But if she turns out to be the sort that truly cries at the drop of a hat, I know I'll slip up and feel guilty all the time trying to cheer her up."

"That is a weakness that would be bad in a queen," Rubicante agreed.

"Right, a queen should be strong too. I just can't think of anybody for myself. Rydia's a good girl, but I don't know." After a moment, he added, "Man, but with one weepy girl pining after me and one psycho girl who might just escape, I half want to get away for a couple days. There's nothing I can use for an excuse, though, even though I don't have a lot of work as king for the time being."

It was quiet for a little while between them, just with Rubicante running the whetting stone on the knife in his hand. He finished that one and picked up another. "I would like to visit Mysidia at some point," he said. "I've not made any progress with Excalipur. If one of the mages there can divine some of its history, I may find a method I haven't thought of yet."

"You've been working on that a while," Edge said. Mysidia... there was something he could accomplish there, right? Something official even.

"Nearly three weeks," Rubicante said. "I think our guests have gotten restless too; they're not the sort to stay in one place for long."

"There is some business I could take care of there in person," Edge said, feeling relieved now that there was a viable option here. "Mysidia's elder is pretty tolerant of unexpected visits. And if we get Gilgamesh and Bartz to accompany us at least on the way there, there shouldn't be as much of a fuss for me leaving. You want to head out for the port? Unless we get delayed there, we should be able to make it to Mysidia tomorrow morning."

"Sure, let me finish this knife set," he said. "It won't take long."

"I'll go grab some things real quick and find them," Edge said, getting off the bench. He always kept a bag ready for travel in case he wanted to slip away like this. As roaming adventurers, Bartz and Gilgamesh should be able to leave quickly as well.

Before Edge found them, he made sure to find a pair of ninjas he trusted and ask them to keep an eye on Lana in case Ream escaped. They agreed, swearing that they wouldn't let her come to harm. Bartz and Gilgamesh were over at the training tower again; they were happy to go see another place. With them helping to convince the advisers without the old farts getting a chance to protest, they were out of the castle in record time.

Most of the crews who passed through Eblan's port were used to him showing up suddenly with plans to go elsewhere, so it was fast to charter a ship as well. Edge felt like he could relax as they pulled out to sea. It helped that Gilgamesh was especially cheerful about the trip. After getting up on the ship's prow, he said, "I love a good sea trip! This is what exploring is all about, seeing the wide open world out there for you to discover."

"And a ship is a lot better than trying to get around on back of a drake," Bartz said, leaning on the ship's edge but not joining him up there.

The ship's crew probably thought these two were just close friends. They had their moments of silly flirting from time to time. But mostly, Edge saw this kind of moment in them. They didn't hold each other back. Yet when their eyes met, there was a joyful warmth to their smiles like just being with each other made things better. It was like Cecil and Rosa, a partnership that made Edge a little wishful he had somebody who could be like that with him. But who could tolerate him like that?

"Hey, so are there any pirate bands in your world?" Gilgamesh asked, looking back out to sea. "They're always good for a good time."

"Although sometimes that good time is made of escaping from their clutches by the skin of our teeth," Bartz said, smiling nostalgically.

Gilgamesh gave a hearty laugh at that. "Or making them think we got away by the skin of our teeth. Heroes don't get away in a boring fashion; it'd make for horrible stories later."

"Can't have that hanging over one's head," Edge said, smiling at the idea. "I'm afraid not, no pirates unless you count some of the sea monsters."

"Well a sea monster hunt makes for good stories too," Gilgamesh said.

Time passed quickly in sharing stories with them, and sharing plans for making bigger stories. But as the sun started setting, Edge noticed that Rubicante wasn't around. He hadn't complained about taking a ship, but this couldn't be too comfortable for him as the Elemental Lord of Fire. Edge excused himself from their conversation, saying that he was going to check on his room. While he'd thought Rubicante might be below deck, he wasn't.

Instead, he was at the back of the ship, watching over the ocean they'd passed. "A little ocean spray up front enough to defeat you?" he said jokingly, to at least show that he was in a better mood now.

"It's an annoyance," he said, serious as usual.

"Well you never said anything against going by ship, so I assumed you were okay with it," Edge said. "Are you?"

"I could get there quicker by my own means," Rubicante said. "But I'm fine with this."

"Good." What to say now? Could he talk with him about this wishful feeling?

In the end, he just stayed there quietly as well. That was something unexpected that he'd learned from Rubicante. Silence was one tool of a ninja. And yet, there was also something nice about enjoying quiet from time to time. The wind pressed against the sails; the waves passed around the boat. And sometimes, there was laughter and faint chatter from the rest of the ship. Out on the horizon, the shimmering sun reached out to the watery horizon, ready to melt into it.

"I wanted to travel with you," Rubicante said quietly.

"You could come along any time you like if you just ask," Edge said. "Especially if I've got to make other trips with my advisers, they take all the fun out of it."

"I want to be with you more," he said, as if trying to clear up something.

There was something to him that was like Lana earlier, except Rubicante was less likely to fall apart into tears while trying to express... Could he feel that way? It couldn't be; he had to be saying he was grateful for their friendship or something. It still made Edge feel like the rest of the ship suddenly didn't matter. "What?"

At this time of day, the fiery markings on his skin matched the setting sun. "You interested me at first as a promising young warrior who could become a true master if you learned some honor and patience. When I got this chance at life even after dying, I thought I could be satisfied with guiding you. I'm not human; I don't need many things, don't want much either. I could just be the essence of fire in the world. But lately, I find that I feel you as so important to me that I want to be the most important person to you."

This was no lighthearted flirting to make someone's day a bit nicer. This was honest to goodness speaking from the heart at its most serious. Of course, Rubicante would be that way. He wasn't going to say something without meaning it. And probably not without having thought about it long and hard, not spontaneously out of habit. Edge gripped the rail there, partly to assure himself that this was really happening. Could it be a joke? No, Rubicante would not joke about this, not like himself.

"If you'd rather not, I could return to the Fire Crystal and not bother you again," Rubicante said.

"You don't bother me," Edge said, although it was just a cover for the utter panic that his thoughts were in now.

Rubicante looked over at him, calm and yet with a faint echo of the nervous admiration Lana had. Or maybe that nervousness was just what Edge was feeling. It might be an echo of that 'glad to be with you' shine that was with Bartz and Gilgamesh. Or maybe it was that wish, so recent and yet...

"I don't know what to say," Edge said, caught in that waiting look for a response. "I need to think about this."

He probably should have waited on a response, but he left the back of the ship then and there. But this was a ship; there weren't many places to go. Edge ended up going back below decks, since they had given him a private room out of respect to his rank. Not that it helped much, but he could at least close the door.

"Man, what do I do now?" he said, burying his face in his hands.

* * *

"Hey, I think Rubicante finally said something," Gilgamesh whispered as if conspiring about something.

"About what?" Bartz asked. The sun was below the horizon now and night was rapidly engulfing them.

Gilgamesh sighed and said, "You silly." Then he leaned closer. "About confessing his feelings to Edge, remember? But I don't think it went well since he's brooding over there at the back of the ship."

"Oh yeah, that." Bartz smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I just don't get all the fuss people make about worrying over love. It's not that hard."

"Well you had me tell you outright without drama, so it wasn't hard between us," he said. "But those two have loads of drama between them, between that guy trying to let out all that he's bottled up and the king being caught up in the responsibilities of royalty and some serious stuff that went down in the past. I don't even know the whole story, but it's probably painful to them both trying to work things out."

"That sounds bad." A lot of things other people did seemed like overly complex drama to Bartz, but they tended to get mad at him if he suggested that. But Gilgamesh thought it was endearing that he felt like that.

"It would be so worth it if it actually works out and they fall madly in love," Gilgamesh said, caught up in his usual love for drama. "Some of it has to be left to them to work out, but they're more likely to fall apart if nobody speaks up to help them. I'll go chat with Ruby there, since he's used to me by now. You go down and talk to Edge; he seems to like you."

"You want me to go talk with Edge?"

"Yes, you should do fine."

Bartz rubbed his head. "Are you sure about that? I mean, about me being able to help him. It should be a simple thing and I don't always get people who make a fuss about it."

"Well maybe having someone tell him things plain and simple will clear up his mind," Gilgamesh suggested. "Can't know until you try, and I can back you up if you can't get through to him. I don't think it'll take much to encourage Rubicante to wait, he's pretty patient as is."

"All right, I'll try talking with him," Bartz said.

It wasn't that he was worried about speak with royalty. Bartz had known enough royal folks to know that they were like anybody else in the world, just with more responsibilities. But love had always been a joyful and good thing to him, so trying to help someone who had problems with love was out of his knowledge.

When Bartz got to the hall where their rooms for overnight were, one was closed but soon opened. Nobody came out. He walked by and saw that it was Edge's room; the king was pacing there, looking over a journal. He did say that he had some official business to handle in the town they were headed for. For a moment, he considered just leaving him be. But then, Gilgamesh was counting on him and even if it wasn't what he thought it was, it was still potentially bad if these two lost their friendship with each other.

"How're you doing?" Bartz asked, stopping in the doorway.

He glanced up from the journal, not looking particularly upset or anything. "Hmm? Oh, I'm fine. I just need to review quickly what I mean to discuss with the elder. Why do you ask?"

It was good that he asked, since Bartz wasn't sure how to bring it up otherwise. "Because Gilgamesh thought you and Rubicante had a fight or something."

Edge snorted at that. "Hardly; you'd know if it was a fight."

"Or maybe that he'd confessed his feelings to you and something didn't go smoothly as a result?" Bartz added.

He froze in place at that. "What?"

"Well I'm sure you've seen how he loves drama," he tried to explain.

"But how do you two know about that already?" Edge asked, closing the journal and acting oddly defensive. So that was right.

"You're acting odd for you, I think," Bartz said. "You had this door shut, but opened it when you heard me come down, right?"

Edge grumbled and turned away. "Would you close the door again?"

"All right," he said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. "Then what's wrong?"

"So much," he said, going over to sit on the bed. "He didn't straight out say he loved me, but what he said could only mean that. But this shouldn't be happening! When we first met, he was working for the being of pure hatred that wanted to destroy our world and I thought he had killed my parents and many others in our castle. It turned out that he wasn't fully responsible for that, and he was always honorable as a rival. But this is just crazy."

Maybe that was why Gilgamesh thought he could help? "Well, Gilgamesh was initially my rival working for a tree of pure malice that wanted to destroy two worlds, except it was actually the same world."

Edge stared at him in disbelief. "A... tree?"

Nodding, he explained, "People thought they could get rid of all evil by sealing away anything evil within a single tree, except then the tree became a supremely evil warlock. I don't really know why it hired Gilgamesh, cause he hasn't changed all that much since then. But the first few times, he was ordered to kill us for trying to stop Exdeath, the evil tree. He sacrificed his life within the Void to help me and my friends. But the Void is a weird place and eventually he showed back up and declared that he loved me on the spot."

"Um..." he looked down, embarrassed some.

Bartz decided to go on with the story anyhow. "Well I took off with him initially because he promised to take me to other worlds. Peaceful worlds are nice and all, but they end up boring me. But it worked out for us in the end and I couldn't be happier traveling with him. So it's not completely crazy, just a little."

"You two are weird," Edge said. "But, all right, I am a bit jealous of that."

"That we're weird?" he asked.

"No, that you're happy together. Even if it isn't completely crazy that he'd love me, I..." he kicked the edge of the bed, then narrowed his eyes at him. "Hey, if I tell you this, you can't tell anybody else. At least on this world. It could wreck my reputation."

He nodded; that was easy enough. "Sure, I promise."

"I don't even know why I think I can tell you this," he said. "Except, you kind of remind me of another king, one of my friends. Anyhow, even if Rubicante really loves me, and I can't imagine that he'd joke about that kind of thing, I'm, well I'm not good at keeping relationships. I've messed up really bad, even as recently as today before we left Eblan. I hate hurting people's feelings."

"How does that make you bad at relationships?" he asked.

For a moment, he had a look of disbelief on his face. Bartz was used to that. "Because I find it hard to say no to somebody. Or to stop flirting with pretty ladies, which gets some of them infatuated with me, and then I have to turn them down because I don't really know them and they start crying," he sighed. "And I end up in another mess and trying to run off from it. I'd rather just take a smile for a compliment, which is all I'm after. Just a temporary little thing, but they hope for more and I'm no good at that."

"How long has it been since you really tried?" Bartz wasn't sure where he was going with this, but other people tended to figure things out on their own if they talked about it enough.

Edge actually turned a bit red at that. "It's... been a while. Since I was a teenager."

"So why not try again? Rubicante seems pretty patient."

"Yeah, and honorable beyond belief, and he doesn't say or do things without meaning them. He tolerates me better than anybody else too. He..." he brought a hand up trying to explain something, then dropped it again. "He's got a pure heart. I'm not saying that lightly either. Like I said, he was working for a being of pure hatred that drove all the monsters in this world berserk and corrupted the other Elemental Lords thoroughly. Yet he kept his integrity and honor through it all even as he fought us.

"I don't deserve love from someone like that, not when I'm so unreliable. I don't want to hurt him either, even though he said he could take it. While I've pressed past this kind of thing before, it feels so much worse this time. I had no idea that he could feel that strongly for me! He's not even human. But he's become my closest friend even as I doubted him from time to time. I don't know what to do, and he's usually the person I talk to about this kind of thing."

It seemed to Bartz that the answer to this was obvious, although people usually got mad if he said that. "If you don't feel you're worthy of him but you admire him so much, why don't you accept his love and use that as inspiration to make yourself worthy?"

Edge seemed to blank out at that, staring at him. "Would that really work?"

Shrugging, he said, "I dunno. Really, I'm just a simple guy who doesn't get a lot of things. If you gave me a chocobo and an expanse of wilderness, I wouldn't have a care in the world. It's how I've lived for years, and even with Gilgamesh that hasn't changed. But I find that if you want to get better at something, it helps to have some goal to focus on, with some reminder close by so you don't forget about it. Just be honest with him; he already seems to love you in spite of your flaws."

"Can't really know if you don't try," Edge said, like he was remembering something someone had said to him. "And you can't be good until you try again and again even when you fail. I think, I would try harder to improve myself if it was Rubicante. All right, I just need some time to think more." He laughed a bit at himself. "It's not so easy for me to be straightforward, not like a simple guy like you. We teach ninjas to be evasive and obscure our true condition. It's like trying to walk noisily when walking silently is second-nature."

"I thought being a ninja was about getting the first strike with two swords," Bartz said, smiling at the joke. "Also bonking people in the head with scrolls and immolating them with fire that way."

He genuinely laughed at that. "You're not supposed to bonk them with the scrolls."

"I nearly always do that when I try using them," he said, rubbing his head. "But then I dual wield as a knight most of the time since that's easier to understand. Good luck with Rubicante; I think you two would be good for each other."

"Thank you, Bartz."


	4. Speaking in Elemental Tongues

Gilgamesh had suggested that it would take some time for Edge to be able to respond properly. And Rubicante knew that he was right. Edge wasn't used to taking love seriously and would rather get out of the situation than do so. In the morning as they entered Mysidia, Rubicante treated it like any other day, just one where he happened to be visiting another town.

Despite this being a spontaneous trip, the elder of Mysidia somehow knew they'd be there and was quick to greet them. Edge even got right down to politics as they went off to discuss matters between Eblan and Mysidia. Before long, Bartz and Gilgamesh had spotted the tavern and went off to learn local gossip there. Rubicante decided he may as well take care of his own business and asked around about where he'd find someone capable of divination.

He hadn't known if what he wanted was possible, but on learning that it was, it wasn't hard to find the diviner. This place had the highest level of magical knowledge among humans; only the Land of Summons could compare and the two locations were now trading information. When Rubicante got to the diviner's house, he met with the diviner and her student.

"It's an honor to meet an Elemental Lord like yourself," the diviner said while the student watched on in rapt attention. "What may we help you with?"

"I would like to know the history of a sword not of this world," he said, bringing out Excalipur.

"Not of this world?" the student asked in wonder.

"I should be able to learn it," the diviner said, holding her hands out to take the sword. "Although if it is mundane, there will not be..." she stopped, taking a long look at the sword. "This sword is innocent."

"It's an object," Rubicante said. "It cannot sin."

She shook her head. "I know that; it should not be notable. But this sword is innocent, there is no arguing that point." She closed her eyes. "A few years ago, the dark knight Cecil came to Mysidia and left to become a paladin. I spoke with him that day and it was his sword that terrified me more than the man. It was an evil sword, one that hungered for death and could kill from even a small cut. While I don't know what came of that evil sword, this sword reminds me of it, being innocent when it should not have such a quality. It will definitely have a history, but I will have to convince the sword to reveal itself."

The sword would have to be convinced... perhaps that counted for any work done on it. "I see. That's already valuable information for me. Please continue."

Later that morning, Rubicante decided to visit the Water Crystal as the others seemed busy. The people guarding the room insisted he let a black mage accompany him. It didn't bother him. Besides, he meant to speak with the Crystal in a way only a being like himself could. Even these scholars would not be able to comprehend what was exchanged.

The Crystal's room was cold to him, a sense of arctic waters that caused him to clutch his cloak tightly around his body. Coming alert to his presence, the Crystal shimmered and spoke in the tones of a gentle woodland stream. _Welcome, child of Fire. What brings you here?_

Water was trying to be gentle and reassuring to him. Good, there were no feelings of blame for what had gone on under Zeromus' influence. Rubicante responded in kind, using the tones of a torch. _Business with humans. I live with them, I help them._

A blue light darted across the floor between them, startling the black mage. _Good. Could you speak with my child? They are in the waters south of here, still an essence. I would like them too to help humans._

 _I would be glad to._ When he had been a new essence, Rubicante had encountered a human knight who lived with honor and fairness. He had become that which he admired as a result. If he could do the same for the new Elemental Lord of Water, it could benefit the world. And now... _I do not live near my parent, so I come to you with a question. I love a human. What should I do?_

Lights rippled across the walls as the Crystal became concerned. _You will bring great harm to your beloved if you are not careful._

 _That is one thing I'm worried about._ It usually was no problem to keep from harming humans, but there was a lot of uncertainty of what could happen.

_If you're certain that your love is returned and will be committed, go to your parent and ask to retire to become human. Be certain of that decision as it cannot be reversed._

He had not been aware that he could retire. Still, seeing if Edge could stay committed might take a while. _I see. I'll be careful then._

* * *

Edge was able to finish up things by noon. It was mostly socializing for political reasons this time, the only real issue being a request for the magic masters to exchange students with the ninja masters for a couple years. Not only was the cross-training good, but it was helpful towards keeping a strong alliance with Mysidia. Mysidia had never been interested in military power even as the home of a Crystal, so helping to keep them safe (and keeping tabs on any potential shift in policy) was in Eblan's interests.

Now, where had Rubicante gotten off to? Edge wanted to ask him to join him for lunch, even if Rubicante rarely ate anything. It'd be a good start towards apologizing for last night. Although, they should probably slip out of town for more personal conversations. But where around here would he be interested in? It was mostly plains, forests, and beaches out here, nothing particularly fiery.

It took asking around to find that Rubicante had already left town after speaking with the Water Crystal. And that he'd asked about where on the beach would be a good place to address the ocean, which was very odd. But then, he was an Elemental Lord and might be capable of doing that. Edge headed to the beach south of Mysidia and looked around. He couldn't have gone far.

There was a promising sign in what looked like a campfire out on a sandbar far into the waves. Few others would have done that. Out on the sandbar, Rubicante was daringly out in the small tides and speaking with an amorphous cloud of water. The cloud pulled back when Edge got on the sandbar, then dove into the waves.

After giving him a glance back in acknowledgment, Rubicante crouched down and held a hand out to the water. "Don't worry, this is a friend of mine. You'll be fine coming out around him."

"He's a good human?" a meek child-like voice came from the waves.

"Yes, he won't hurt you."

"I don't know..." there was a splash and a flicker in the water as something swam away.

"Didn't mean to scare off your friend there," Edge said, continuing out to the fire.

"It's fine," he said, turning back to him. Once he was closer, he added quietly, "I think they're still close by, watching. If we just talk normally, it should help."

Edge nodded. "All right. What, er, who was that?" He rubbed his head, not accustomed to thinking of a floating bundle of water as a person. But then, Rubicante was basically a being of fire even if he looked very human.

"That was the new Elemental Lord of Water." He looked back out at the water. "They don't have a name as they're still formulating an identity. The Water Crystal and I were hoping they'd chose to be close to humans like I am."

"That'd be good," Edge said. Then if something like Zeromus showed up in the world, that'd be another Elemental Lord that wouldn't fully give in.

Rubicante glanced off to the side; something splashed again. "I think they're going to be watching; please be mindful of them. As an essence, they're very impressionable. They're aware that humans defeated the four of us as their predecessors, so they're wary."

"Maybe you could talk to the other two as well? Since they're your new allies." So that was the essence Rubicante spoke of returning to. Perhaps showing the Lord of Water that they and humans could get along...

Unlike his other experiences, this was making Edge nervous. Lighthearted flirtation was not how to handle this; it was a serious matter that already affected him deeply. And to think there was a very impressionable being nearby whose whole life could be affected by what they witnessed today, it could have consequences beyond the two of them. But then, that was how his life was once he accepted being king. The things he said or did had consequences well beyond himself.

"That would be worth doing," Rubicante said. "If the three new Lords could meet good humans early on like I did, I believe their prospects would be improved as well."

"We know plenty of people who could fit that bill," Edge said. "Heck, just introduce one of them to Cecil."

"If one of them was inspired by him, it would be a great boon to the world," he agreed.

"Then, you wanna head to Baron next and see if we can't drag him off to Fabul or Troia?" he asked.

"Aren't you supposed to return to Eblan shortly?" Rubicante asked.

He shrugged. "I'm sure I can get away with it if I explain it as a diplomatic mission. And really, isn't it that? Going to see the new Elemental Lords and trying to ally them with not just Eblan, but all of humankind, that sounds pretty diplomatic to me." Edge winked. "Responsible too, right? They should all be really impressed with us if we pull it off."

Rubicante actually smiled at that, something Edge didn't see often. "That would surprise them."

"And then I'll make them facepalm again when I suggest we try taming a dragon for the training towers!" Edge said cheerily. Encouraged by how this was going, he took a deep breath and went ahead with what he hoped went well. "Oh, and, I'm sorry about last night. You caught me off guard and I never know what to say when that kind of thing gets turned on me."

"I thought that might be it," Rubicante said, back to being completely calm. But he was watching him with full attention now, listening but not as usual.

He bit back on more doubting thoughts. He should be more like Bartz here, simple and honest. "I wouldn't normally say this, but I'm just afraid of messing things up. I mean, so many people I loved and relied on are gone now," he shouldn't dwell on that long, "and I'm left with advisers who don't get me and people who nag me about things that don't matter to me. And, well, you. Rubicante, you're already the person I trust most that's with me on a daily basis. I honestly don't think I could ever measure up to you."

"You can be better than you think you can be," he said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Besides you have fun with life in a way I never considered, and never experienced until I started living in Eblan. I would like to try it more often, although I'm afraid I'm too serious to know what I'm doing there."

Then there was something more he wanted. It wasn't what Edge expected, but he couldn't imagine anything better to strive for with him. "That's not too hard, but I'll be glad to help you out." He put a hand on top of Rubicante's. "Maybe what I'm looking for isn't that hard either. I've decided: I want to be with you too, and I want to become a better man for you. I might still mess up, but I'll work at it until you don't have to worry about me. If you'll accept me as a guy who boasts and flirts too much, I'm honored that you'd love me. And, I also love you."

"Edge, I don't want to be with anyone but you," Rubicante said, something in his voice much like the welcoming fire here by them.

Except, there were some sounds that weren't the fire nearby, or the Lord of Water lurking in the tides. Edge moved closer and put his other hand on Rubicante's chest. "Yes..." then he glanced back and whispered, "but there's a suspicious pile of seaweed nearby, isn't there?"

Rubicante looked past him a moment. "Ah, yes." He snapped his fingers between them, sending off a small spark.

"Yiyiyiyiyi-owie!" From that alone, Edge could tell Rubicante had hit Gilgamesh. He turned around and spotted Bartz snuffing out the burning seaweed with some damp sand. Gilgamesh was brushing down his armor, although he wasn't badly hurt. "Rats, we've been flushed out."

Although they had been spying on something private, Edge couldn't feel angry with them. "I commend you for getting together such a disguise on the spot so fast, but you're not about to fool us."

"We saw you leaving town about asking after him, so we had to come see somehow," Gilgamesh said, not too worried.

"You two really are weird," Rubicante said.

"And proud of it," Bartz said.

"Don't be spying on us again," Edge said. "But then, he was talking to me and you were talking with him, right? I don't think I could have done this if Bartz hadn't done that, so, thank you."

"I wouldn't have said anything in the first place if Gilgamesh hadn't encouraged me," Rubicante admitted. "It seems we owe you both greatly."

Gilgamesh waved that off. "Don't worry about it. Just be good to each other, yeah? We're happy to help."

"We got some sandwiches from the tavern," Bartz said, bringing out a large bag from his inventory storage. "Want to share lunch out here? There's already a good fire."

Edge had meant to share lunch with just Rubicante. But then, they could get some time to themselves later. These two should understand. "Sure, that's be great!"

* * *

A ripple moved along the shallow tides. There was no form to it, no purpose. But, there was something very nice, something close by. The earth met the water here at the sandy beach; the air stirred the fire, right at the boundary of the other two elements. At that meeting place of the elements of light, there was another powerful presence: love.

"By now, I'm sure that whatever spirits run these paladin ordeals must be prejudiced against you," Bartz said, patting Gilgamesh's arm. "It always seem like you should pass them, but then they reject you."

"If it's just prejudices, then I'm sure one of them will eventually say yes, so I can finally wield Excalibur," Gilgamesh said. "And maybe it will be that one on Mount Ordeals here!"

"You'd be the noisiest paladin yet," Rubicante said.

"Possibly the funniest too, so that's got to be a point in your favor," Edge said. "Go for it."

Gilgamesh punched a fist in the air. "Yeah, I'll get that spirit to listen to me!"

"And if you're going up there," Edge said, "mind snooping around for a friend of mine? Kain's a dragoon and supposedly he's been out on Mount Ordeals training himself. But none of us have seen him in the past four years, not even when his best friend got married and crowned king. Even if he just comes around for a short visit to prove that he's not dead, we want to see him again."

"Sure, we'll try to find him too," Bartz agreed.

These four all had shining souls: honor, courage, selflessness, passion. They were all heroes, even Rubicante. It was impressive. Then, humans were good beings. And there was something more too...

An extra ripple appeared as a slender hand briefly emerged.

One love had been burning for a long time; the two souls were united as one and knew it was a blessing. Such a blessing was it that they reached out to the other love, new and struggling to get itself going, and helped it establish itself. Perhaps they would grow as unquestionably united as the others. Being faithful in love, helping others reach that ideal: it was a noble and admirable way to be. A way to be...

"I know who I am."

The group around the bonfire reacted to the larger splash, "What was that?" Bartz asked.

"Hold," Rubicante said, gesturing to the others to not do anything rash. He got up and turned to the water. "Are you still out there?"

"There was another spy?" Gilgamesh quietly asked.

She took on her true form for the first time, a long winding sea serpent below the watery torso of a slender woman. She might have to find some more land-friendly form to work with humans, but she was a child of Water. "Yes. I am Gillzanno. After watching you four here, I believe you now. I would like to help humans too."

Rubicante nodded. "Good. You can start with your neighbors here in Mysidia; they should be glad to work with you."

The idea of talking to more than a few people still made her nervous. But, she'd have to overcome that shyness to do what she wanted. "I'll try. I should speak with my parent now. But I hope we can be friends."

"Of course, I'll help you out anytime, just come by Eblan," her elder Lord said.

Gillzanno nodded, then slipped back into the ocean's water. Instinctively, she knew there was a way to the Water Crystal from here. There should also be a pond in the human town for her to start talking with them.

If Rubicante could live near one of the humans who defeated him, even fall in love with him, then she should be able to make friends with humans too.


	5. The Class Change of Legend

Mount Ordeals was one of those places that Bartz loved. It was a long trek from civilization, past deep forests where chocobos and monsters thrived. As it was a lone mountain out here, the views were spectacular: a vast canopy of dark green leaves underneath an unbroken stretch of sky that currently had a storm pulling itself together. There was an obnoxious amount of undead on the rocky paths for some reason. But if you were going to have a monster infestation, undead weren't so bad when you had the right tools to deal with them. Excalibur or its like would have been ideal here, but the wedding sword and Gilgamesh's collection of fire swords took care of things handily.

Near the peak, Bartz spotted who he figured should be Kain, mostly by the dragon styling of his armor and the way he casually hopped down the ridge he was on when they came in sight of each other. Gilgamesh apparently hadn't seen him, so Bartz kept quiet for the time being while they crossed a rustic wooden bridge. It led to a monument encircled by five pillars, some kind of massive crystal that faintly glowed like the moon.

"This would be a gorgeous spot by night," Bartz said, glancing over one of the corner pillars in case there was an inscription or the like. But if there was, it'd probably be in an ancient mystical language he couldn't read. That kind of thing cropped up in many worlds.

"A pity we didn't bring an artist along then," Gilgamesh said. He was looking over the center pillar of the five. "Come here, I think we both need to touch this if we want to stick together."

"Sure thing." Once they did, the glow sucked them in to a different space.

It was an impressive room. The walls enclosing it were tiled with mirrors or clouded crystals that matched the mirrors to create reflections that weren't disorienting. Between that and the unearthly lighting, it was definitely a holy place that was rarely disturbed. However, there wasn't a doorway or anything that pointed to an obvious trial. Maybe they meant for internal reflection or something deep like that?

"Wow, this is quite the stage," Gilgamesh said, checking over the mirrored floor. "But what's the play this time?"

"Maybe you should declare your intent?" Bartz suggested.

He nodded, then stepped into the center of the room. "Hey, you mighty spirits or whoever resides here! I'm looking to become a paladin so I earn the right to wield Excalibur!"

"You do not have the right soul to bear such a blessing," a voice replied to him promptly. "Someone who covets material goods to such a degree cannot be a paladin."

"Hmph, they're quick and brutal in judgment here," Gilgamesh said, trying to hide his disappointment.

Bartz didn't like this. "Hey, why is that such a big deal?" he asked, going to the center of the room as well. "Sure he's a collector, but he's also a true hero. He's quick and eager to help others without a thought to what he'll get out of it. Sometimes he gets too caught up in what he does, but he realizes his mistakes and will do all he can to make up for it. He's even sacrificed himself for the sake of the world and his friends. He wouldn't be a perfect paladin, but he'd be great at it. If you just wait for the perfect person to happen to come by this far into the wilderness, then you're going end up with so few paladins that they may as well be legends."

"You know, I can deal with this," he said, putting a hand on Bartz's shoulder. But his eyes showed his gratitude. Bartz smiled at him.

"Paladins are legends," the voice said. "It is lucky to see one who truly embodies that in any generation. However, you have exactly the right soul for it."

"That doesn't matter to me," Bartz said. Besides, taking on yet another class would mess up the skill set he'd grown comfortable with.

"Now now, don't let that guy turning me down turn you away," Gilgamesh said, gripping his shoulder. "Go on! It'll prove you're a true legend, at least."

"You really okay with it?" he asked. He had no particular desire to become a paladin. Although, it would be another physical based class, right? Maybe he could find out some useful new skills.

"Sure, and you would deserve it more than me," he said. Then he leaned in closer and added in a whisper, "Besides, my swords are your swords and your swords are my swords, so this could make it easier for us to get hold of an Excalibur."

Bartz smiled. "And I'm already using a holy weapon, so that would work out. All right." Once Gilgamesh let him go and stepped back, he said, "All right, what kind of test do you have for me?"

"You must face the darkness within yourself," the voice said as the reflection in front of Bartz shifted.

Behind him, Gilgamesh snorted. "Really? What are you gonna do, call up some adorable hell puppy? Bartz is a Warrior of Light! I can't imagine what you'd bring up."

"I'm not sure what to expect either," Bartz said as the reflection continued trying.

After nearly a minute of silence, the image of a sword replaced his reflection. It had a black blade and a bloody aura. "You are a Warrior of Light," the voice said. "Still, you must prove yourself somehow. This is a dangerous weapon the last successful candidate left behind. Overcome it."

"A dangerous weapon?" All weapons were dangerous. Although, something about that sword seemed to personify being deadly.

"I wonder if its that one Rubicante was talking about, the truly evil sword Deathbringer," Gilgamesh said. "I wouldn't want a weapon of that kind of curse."

A faint thought tried to reach him, an offer to destroy all that opposed him. Bartz thought that was silly. There wasn't anything that opposed him now that mattered. Sometimes, they ran into worlds where they had to keep silent about their relationship as people would react badly to it. But that was no big deal, they were quick to leave those worlds. And if they encountered something like Exdeath again, Bartz was sure that they both had the ability to fight back, no powers of darkness necessary.

The faint thought turned murderous, so Bartz drew his wedding sword, opting to wield it two-handed this time. He'd seen other paladin trials; they usually dissuaded aggression. Keeping that in mind, he intercepted the sword and blocked it when it threw itself at them. Whether it was aiming for him or Gilgamesh didn't matter; he had to stop it from taking out its hatred on either of them. There was a flash as the white sword met the black. Deathbringer shattered and fell on the floor.

"Your will to protect is strong indeed," the voice said as another sword materialized in the reflection. The evil sword crumbled further. "Visitor from the Void, I acknowledge you as a paladin. Take the sword before you and continue to protect peace across the worlds."

"I will," Bartz said, taking the sword once it emerged from the wall. They were then sent out of the trial chamber. While the clouds had thickened, the storm hadn't yet started. "That really wasn't that hard."

"Well you are the ideal one to become a paladin," Gilgamesh said, coming over to hug him. "Congratulations, I knew you could do it!"

"Thanks, but I don't think this is Excalibur," he said, patting his arm before offering the sword to him.

"Hmm?" He took it and examined it. "Oh yeah, this is a novice level sword. Mythgraven... Holy element, won't respond well to someone without a blessing to be a paladin. Otherwise, nothing that special. It is engraved with something..." he tilted the sword upright. "'Lest a world should forget, never let yourself lose sight of this one truth: Evil can only succeed if Good fails to act.' Hey, that's not even a myth!"

"Well that is a truth that shouldn't be forgotten," Bartz said, taking Mythgraven back.

Then a dragoon landed close to them. "So another has been recognized as a paladin," he said.

"Are you Kain?" Bartz asked.

"Yes, what about it?" he asked back, suspicious.

"Edge asked us to try finding you when he heard we were coming here to check it out. He said that your other friends wanted to see you too, so you should leave for a while and see them."

It seemed he was a stubborn one as he shook his head. "No, I can't do that yet. Not until I have erased the weakness inside me."

"Aw come on, he said you've been up here four solid years," Gilgamesh said. "If you haven't made any progress that whole time, maybe it's time you did something different."

"It's not a simple matter," Kain said.

Gilgamesh clicked his tongue. "You know, I've learned that when people say that, it's often simpler than they make it out to be. What is it, you get jealous somebody else won the heart of someone you loved and an evil force took advantage of that?"

"What, how?" Kain stammered, stepping back. "Who told you that?"

"So that is it!" Gilgamesh said.

"He's been obsessed with romance lately," Bartz said. "So it was probably a lucky guess."

"Yeah, but it was the best kind of lucky," Gilgamesh said, proud of it. Kain sighed at that.

"Well it is awful, but can't you find someone else?" Bartz asked. "Thinking that you only have one chance at love is naive. There's lots of people in the world. You could find a town away from your previous love and act as their protector while you continue to improve yourself. That way, you could find someone else to fall in love with. There's a good chance the town would be grateful for your help."

"And if this guy is saying something is naive, you really should reassess your stance," Gilgamesh said.

"What do you mean by that?" he said. He was an adult, so he shouldn't count as naive anymore.

"Nothing bad, I love you for how you are," he said with a smile. Maybe he was giving Kain another push.

"Could something that simple work?" Kain asked, like he wasn't sure if he could believe it. "Anyhow, four years might seem like a long time, but..."

"It is when they're not sure if you're still alive," Bartz said. "You really shouldn't make your friends worry like that."

He looked down at that, probably ashamed. "Maybe. But I left society to get away from temptation. If I go back before I'm ready, well..."

"That sounds like you haven't grown at all being out by yourself," Gilgamesh said. "Which means it isn't working that well. Besides, we told him that we'd get you off this mountain one way or another. It'll just be less trouble for all of us if you leave willingly."

While Kain glared, Bartz told Gilgamesh, "Hey, we don't have to get violent. Although, you do have a point. Training without any resistance doesn't work, like you can't truly train to wield a broadsword with a stick. So if your weakness is some kind of temptation in society, then getting away from society is not going to work."

"That would make sense," Kain said, although he still sounded reluctant. "You're friends of Edge?"

"Of course, we helped to hook up him and Rubicante," Gilgamesh said.

Kain stared at him for a moment. "Ru-Rubicante? Edge and... what?"

"We can tell you about it tonight, since we're probably not getting off this mountain before the storm hits," Bartz said, having kept an eye on the rolling clouds overhead. "I think they won't mind since you're a friend. But they should be leaving Mysidia by now to get ahead of the storm; Edge was saying to Baron, then either Troia or Fabul."

He nodded to that. "Then they must have a ship of some kind. We could reach Fabul if you don't mind a tough trek."

Gilgamesh laughed at that. "Mind? Hah, the two of us live for tough treks! But yeah, let's get out from under this storm."

* * *

The woman seemed like she was stressed out over something, probably the work she was doing. Edge nearly said something to her, but immediately bit his tongue on that. No, he was supposed to stop doing that. He was involved with someone else now and he really didn't want to give them false hopes. But it seemed like every girl or woman he ran across could use some encouragement or a nice comment. This was difficult.

"You don't have to force yourself to do something against your nature," Rubicante said quietly to them as they walked through the halls of Baron Castle. "I know you're not being serious with them."

"Well I don't want to end up with girls like I left Eblan to get away from," Edge said back quietly. "I can do better. Gah, but it's just too easy sometimes."

"I really don't mind as long as it stays shallow," Rubicante said.

Edge was still going to try. It should be easier for this meeting, he thought, since it was with Cecil and Rosa. He was used to holding back with married women. Then they got into the throne room and Rydia was also there. Damn, this was going to be awkward. He'd really felt strongly for her for a while. But as she stayed within the Land of Summons instead of the normal world and he was busy putting Eblan back together, Edge had given up on that.

"Hey, we getting a little reunion going on here?" Edge asked, bluffing his way past this uneasiness.

"Seems like it," Cecil said, smiling at him.

"Hi Edge, nice to see you again," Rydia said, smiling innocently. "And you've got Rubicante with you?"

"Yeah, we're actually here on some of his business," Edge said.

Rubicante nodded and took over explaining what they wanted to do with the new Elemental Lords. "We've already inspired the Elemental Lord of Water to ally with humans, so we would like you to come speak with the other two with us, Cecil. I met someone like you when I was young and that allowed me to resist Zeromus' corruption."

"That would be a good thing for future generations," Cecil said. For that reason, he didn't have to think long on it to agree. "Very well, I can take leave for some time to negotiate with them. We can take one of our airships as well."

"Great," Edge said, excited for what this would bring. "Also, we sent a couple new friends to try bugging Kain of that mountain. No idea if they'll succeed, but we could probably swing by and see."

As Cecil looked interested in that, Rubicante added, "The two of them have a good chance at doing so, though they might resort to trickery if he proves stubborn."

"If it gets him to stop being so isolated, it could still be good," Rosa said.

"Good, we can head out whenever you're ready," Edge said.

Cecil had to speak with some of his court to make sure they would handle things in his absence and Rosa went to find Cid for the airship. That left Rydia with him and Rubicante. "Are you okay Edge?" Rydia asked. "Something seems different about you."

"It's been a few years since we've seen each other," he said. "I'm surprised you didn't change even more if the time where you live passes differently."

"It passes really differently, especially since Asura and Leviathan are trying to fix that," she said. "Now that they are more open to human contact, it needed to happen."

"If you're noticing a difference, it's good," Rubicante said. "I've been training him to be less impulsive, among other things."

She nodded. "Well that's good, it's not easy when a leader is impulsive."

"As long as I don't end up super serious, I think I could stand to change," Edge said, feeling relieved that this might not be so bad.


	6. The Problem With Courting Fire

This was one of the worlds that they had spent the longest time in, over six months now. Perhaps because of that, they were leaving a greater influence on the locals. It started with helping out one of the kings take care of a dragon; now their names were known in many towns as a heroic traveling duo, one a paladin and the other odd but equally as brave. They'd even had an influence over beings that would be known as elemental Fiends on any other world, helping them to be more benevolent creatures. Gilgamesh felt satisfied with that.

And even better, they'd gotten hold of a freshly forged Excalibur! With the help of some adamantite and a master blacksmith hidden in the underworld, Mythgraven turned out to be a precursor of the legendary holy blade. There was another Excalibur in the world held by one of its kings, but this was also a true Excalibur. Still, they'd been searching for that elusive water sword and found nothing on that end. It was about time to move on.

That meant going back to Eblan to pick up Excalipur. Even with the real deal in their hands, Excalipur was still a unique sword that Gilgamesh didn't want to give up. It might even be more unique than its inspiration despite being somewhat useless. Besides, a gateway into the Void wasn't a safe thing to cast just anywhere. It'd be best to set it up where they had come in, in Rubicante's smithy.

It should have been easier to find Rubicante than to find Edge. However, they arrived in the smithy only to find it quiet. No one was there; the forge's fires were low, the door closed. Nobody was in the attached apartment, so they had to head into the castle to ask around.

"Something weird is going on," Bartz said as they walked through the entrance hall.

"Yeah," Gilgamesh agreed. This was a nation that was proud of their ninjas, but even that couldn't account for the hush in these halls. And what talking was around was worried. While they were ninjas, they did keep some guards visible to discourage trouble. He went over to one of them. "Hey, could we get in to see Edge?"

The ninja looked them over for a moment. "I should say no, but the way you appear, are you Gilgamesh and Bartz?"

"In the flesh," he said.

"He said you were to be considered friends," the guard said. "Come with me, I'll have to ask him if he's fine with visitors right now."

"Is he busy?" Bartz asked as they followed him.

"No," the guard said, some worry slipping out. "He got attacked somehow last night and ended up severely injured. We're trying to track down the perpetrator, but they've vanished and the king is uncharacteristically silent about it."

"He probably thinks he can take his own revenge and is just waiting to heal up," Gilgamesh suggested, although he didn't believe it was that. But the guard nodded to that.

They were brought to the throne room, which wasn't being used with the king injured. Past that were some stairs up to the private royal quarters. When the guard had gone in to ask, Bartz quietly said, "Must be quite an enemy to get the jump on Edge this badly."

"I've got a hunch that there's a different story behind this," Gilgamesh said. "If so, then he's got good reason to keep his silence."

The guard had come back out then, along with a white mage who must have been tending to him. "He says to go on in."

"Please don't let him do anything reckless," the white mage added quickly. "If he just rest for a couple of weeks, he won't have any permanent injuries from these burns. But that's not an easy thing to convince him of."

"Don't worry, we'll just offer to do stupid things in his stead," Gilgamesh said.

Even with her worries, Edge was sitting up in bed when they came in. His chest, neck, and part of his face were wrapped in bandages, with a brace to keep his neck supported. If he did get out, there wasn't much he could be doing. His voice was even hoarse when he spoke. "I'm glad... you guys dropped in now.  Very glad."

"It seems like we're lucky to have come by at the right time to help," Gilgamesh said. "Was it some accident with Rubicante?" When Edge nodded, he added, "And where is he now?"

"Don't know," Edge said. "I would send... a ninja after him... but they'd blame him. It's not... his fault. He'd blame himself."

"He would be that sort," Bartz said.

"Find him, please," Edge said, offering them an envelope. "I'm worried... he may have done something. Hope not. Can't talk long now. That explains things."

"Sure, we'll look for him," Bartz said, taking the envelope.

"Yeah, and I've got just the thing for it!" Gilgamesh searched for a particular weapon in his collection, a pair of daggers. "You got anything he made with his blacksmithing in here?"

Edge nodded, then leaned over to shift something on the headboard of his bed. A thin dagger slipped out of a hidden panel there. "For emergencies," he explained as he passed it over to Bartz.

It would be a handy thing for a king to have available, but the important matter was that it was something Rubicante had made. "Then I can do a great sword divination on his location! Wish I could've used this on finding a weapon's proper history. Still, there are times like this when it's invaluable. Hmm, and I should use at least one fire sword..."

In the place he'd learned this from, they used it with weapons left behind by missing soldiers. There were a lot of ways a person could die outside of civilization there where bodies couldn't be retrieved, but their funerary practices required knowing the cause of death if at all possible. A blacksmith was even easier to locate if the guiding weapon had been made by them. For a dagger like this that would have been little used by Edge, it would be a piece of cake to locate Rubicante.

Gilgamesh set one divination dagger, the emergency dagger, and a short sword imbued with fire into a triangle on the stone floor. Altering the chant slightly to tap into the authority of this world's crystals, he activated the location spell on the other divination dagger and tapped it against the other three swords. He spoke Rubicante's name each time he touched a weapon as well. When his hand trembled, he knew the dagger had a location. The double sheath for these daggers included an alphabet to reveal its findings.

"Tower of Babil," Gilgamesh read. "B6. So, that means that giant tower near here?"

Edge nodded; he already seemed relieved. "Get a guard. We'll get you inside. You should be fine... from there."

"Sure enough, leave it to us," Gilgamesh said, retrieving his weapons.

"But when we get back, we're going to have to talk with you two about proper protection," Bartz said.

Edge started to laugh but ended up coughing. He nodded, then waved them off to find the guard. Sometimes, Bartz had his clever moments and they were brilliant.

* * *

One could find the elements of Wind, Earth, and Water nearly everywhere on the surface. They were in abundance as the natural state of things. But one did not find Fire as frequently as the rest out in nature. Humans had taken Fire for their own and used it in many ways. Still, even Damcyan as the residence of the Fire Crystal did not have Fire in abundance outside their castle. The desert was hot and dry, but wasn't full of fire.

When Rubicante felt like going back to nature, he most often went into the underworld. They had seas of magma, making it the largest expanse of natural Fire anywhere. It provided all the warmth and light in this place in spite of it being home to the Dark Crystals. Looking over it all from a high perch on Babil, it usually gave him a sense of peace. Like he could drop down and enter those seas, then become the pure essence of fire again. Few thoughts, no concerns, just being an endless flame with the choice to advance again in spirit or remain a simple piece of nature.

It was actually tempting today to go down there and do so. It'd be far simpler than dealing with the situation he was in. Or, it could be time to do something else. Either way would be a drastic change, but simply going back wouldn't solve anything.

A loud voice muffled only by the doorway back inside Babil nearly decided it. Those two could simply be exploring as was their nature. Or, they could have been sent to find him. Either way, he didn't mind their presence and would stay here.

When the door opened, Bartz was speaking. His soul was growing well as a paladin. "This world can go all out with malevolent architecture when it likes, so this place could be a lot worse. Ah, here you are."

"Rubicante, good to see you!" Gilgamesh said, coming over. "Although we came after you for a scolding on Edge's behalf."

"How is he?" Rubicante asked. He had to be alive, at least. Rubicante would take whatever scolding he deserved once he knew how Edge was.

"He's all bandaged up and can only speak in short spurts," Bartz said. "The white mage tending to him said he should recover with two weeks rest, and he's in no condition right now to go against that."

"I hope he doesn't fight it," he said. But the thought of Edge staying still and resting for recovery didn't seem right.

"Well you should've stuck around to help him out with that," Gilgamesh said, taking out an envelope and handing it over. "He's worried sick about you! That's not going to help him any. And don't be all like, 'they'd suspect me', cause the fact that you ran makes you even more suspicious to them. You could've talked them down."

That was true, but he had been caught up in the moment and panicked. While Water had warned him, he hadn't expected a moment of passion to undo his physical presence. And it hadn't been that far, not really. Now that he'd calmed down and knew he hadn't accidentally killed Edge, what had to be done was clear. But first, this note...

'Rubicante, I won't blame you for this, so please, don't blame yourself. I understand, I'm sure you weren't expecting it either. But please come back. If you never came back, I don't know if I could take it. Only a few people know about us, so only a few people would understand. I don't want that; I want you back, and I'll do anything if it solves this problem. I still want to be with you more than anyone, I love you, I forgive you.'

Then there was no need to be concerned about Edge not being serious enough for this. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh was still lecturing him even though Rubicante was only half paying attention. "It doesn't matter who you are, you've got to keep your partner's safety in mind too," he said.

"Hmm?" That much should be obvious, unless it was something humans would catch easier than himself.

"Were you listening at all?" Gilgamesh asked, annoyed.

"I knew I had to be careful, but I wasn't aware that something like this could happen," Rubicante said, putting the note back in the envelope. "I don't want it to happen again."

"But you can't be cruel enough to leave him hanging like this," Bartz said.

He nodded. "I'll go back, I promise. But there's something I need to do first, to make sure I don't hurt him again. I'll go to Eblan once it's done."

"How long is this going to take?" Gilgamesh asked. "I'm sure he doesn't want to see a repeat of his friend Kain taking off for four years and not speaking to anyone."

"I don't know how long, but it won't be that long," Rubicante said. "Maybe by this evening. Besides, I need to return Excalipur to you. Could you keep Edge company until then? I'll give you the key to the teleporter on this floor; it'll make it easier to get back to Eblan for you two."

"Thanks, but you'd better make this good," Gilgamesh said, accepting the key from him.

"It should be," Rubicante said, dematerializing back to fire. But this wasn't permanent; it was simply the fastest way to get what he wanted done.

In seconds, he rematerialized deep within Damcyan Castle. If things went well, they might never know he'd been here today. Fire was already alert, welcoming him with phantom flames in its light. _My son, it is good to see you. I heard from the other Light Crystals that you helped to inspire their children. I offer you thanks on behalf of all of us; it may be a saving grace to the whole world in the future._

Unlike with Water, he went right up the steps next to his parent. _I hope it will be so. I come to you with a difficult request: I would like to become human for the person I love._

Specks danced around him, Fire embracing him with its magic. Sadness, happiness, and pride didn't have to be spoken between them. Fire loved him as any parent would. _Are you certain the one you love will be faithful enough to make this sacrifice worthwhile? If it is in vain, there is no way for you to come back._

Rubicante nodded. _There's a world of difference in him between his normal behavior and when he is serious. I am certain this will not be in vain._

_Good. I will miss you, but I am glad to grant you what will bring you happiness. You have given me joy and pride to see you surpass the power of hatred and do more good in the world than you were meant to. Tell me about your love so that I know what to do._

* * *

Edge felt it was nice that he had visitors for today, to help keep his mind off his weakened state. It was nice too that he had this day off where people weren't about to pester him for slacking off. On top of that, even the seneschal wasn't giving him a hard time. But little of it mattered when he was kept waiting for Rubicante to come back. Bartz and Gilgamesh seemed sure that he would. Edge still felt an itch to go looking for him even though it made his chest hurt to speak long or walk far.

Finally, a swirling pillar of flame appeared in an empty spot of the room. That had to be him; no one else Edge knew of used fire like that for teleporting. Relived that things were turning out good, he got to his feet and was about to go over. But the one who appeared in the flames was a woman.

Yet she reminded him of Rubicante still. She had his red and violet cloak over her violet dress, for one thing. She wasn't as large as Rubicante had been, but she was still tall and muscular for a woman; she could be a blacksmith too. In spite of that, or maybe because of it, she was unusually gorgeous. It couldn't be...

"I'm sorry," she said in a voice like Rubicante's but not quite, "for losing control and running off. I'm glad you survived that."

"Rubicante?" Edge said. It seemed crazy, but he was almost convinced all the same.

She nodded. "Yes; I asked to become a human so this doesn't happen again. It's irreversible, but I'm sure I can adapt."

"What gives, were you a woman all along?" Gilgamesh asked. "Wouldn't be the first time I've met someone like that."

"No, I still consider myself masculine," Rubicante said. "It didn't matter while I was an Elemental Lord. But since I was becoming human, I decided to inhabit a woman's body because it will cause Edge and I much less hassle from others around the castle. We won't have to keep silent anymore."

"You didn't have to change yourself," Edge said, trying to think of how to say what he felt. But it shouldn't be something he'd say to just anybody.

"I haven't changed aside from my physical self," he said.

"It's certainly..." his throat tensed again out of pain; the white mage hadn't wanted him to talk any more today, maybe not tomorrow. "A better knockout."

"I think you've said enough for now," Bartz said, then glanced at Rubicante. "He's not supposed to be speaking for the rest of today and tomorrow at least."

Rubicante came closer and patted Edge's shoulder. "Then don't push yourself anymore; it'd be a pity if you ruined your voice." Then he stepped back to take out a sword. "Here, I wanted you three to be the ones to see this. I succeeded in sharpening Excalipur here, but it is truly a special case."

Gilgamesh came closer at that, interested but still giving him space. "Really? What'd you end up doing?"

With the sword out, he then called out one of his large iron hammers. "I spoke to it gently and convinced it that my work was not done with intention to harm. Observe." He knelt down to set the iron hammer on the floor, then brought the blade down on the metal head. It cleaved the end off cleanly. If he'd taken the swing any further, the floor might have been cut into as well.

"Whoa, haven't seen many swords do that," Bartz said, impressed.

"Yeah, not without specific metal cutting enhancements," Gilgamesh said.

Rubicante picked up the cut hammer. "This is an old hammer, I have better ones for when I need them. With sufficient strength, this sword can cut through many materials. I've already shaped a diamond with it. However, it will still not harm any living being. Any. Human, plant, moss, beast, even undead monsters: it does not matter what it is, if it lives in any capacity, Excalipur will not harm it."

"Even sharpened it stays the same," Gilgamesh said, putting his hand on his chin. "Interesting. Did you find out why?"

He nodded. "A rare few weapons have souls of a sort, giving them a personality they can use to silently assert themselves to their wielder. This is one of those swords. It is pure innocence that cannot bring itself to harm another being. When it was being crafted, its maker mistook such purity for the holy confidence that the sword Excalibur holds. Excalibur will allow itself to draw blood for the sake of dispatching evil and protecting the innocent. Thus, it has high standards for those who would wield it. Excalipur, on the other hand, is one of those innocents that Excalibur would protect if it was a person rather than a sword. I feel that Excalipur is still a masterpiece; it's simply more difficult to find a purpose to a softhearted sword like this."

"I always knew it was a precious one," Gilgamesh said.

"If it can influence its wielder, it'd be a good reminder that fighting isn't the solution for every problem," Bartz said. "Or most problems, really. It'd just be a matter of getting a reckless person who could learn that lesson to keep hold of that sword long enough for its influence to get through."

"Maybe it will fulfill such a purpose one day," Rubicante said, having set the sword back in its sheath. He handed it back over to Gilgamesh. "Until then, keep it safe."

"Of course, I'll treat it as it wants now that I know how it is," Gilgamesh said, bowing his head. "Well then, it's been a blast hanging around your world, but we've got to move on. We've managed to get an Excalibur, but we're still looking for that water sword."

"Good luck in that," Rubicante said, bowing back. "And thank you again for all that you've done for us. We'll never forget you."

As he shouldn't speak, Edge nodded in agreement. When he'd first met this pair of goofs in Rubicante's forge, he had no idea how they could change their lives. It was a pity they couldn't do anything more for them besides figuring out the riddle of Excalipur.

"That's right, just keep passing on the legend!" Gilgamesh said. "Good luck, you two; we might just see each other again, depending on where the Void leads us."

But it seemed that was all they wanted.

With them gone, Rubicante came over and put an arm around him. "Now I want one thing to be clear: I will not tolerate you hurting yourself more than you already are. I am going to be here and make certain that you be good and keep on track to good health again."

As strict as that was, his caring came through clearly. Edge might barely tolerate that out of the others (or not at all), but this was a different story. He nodded and hugged him back. Later, he could express how grateful he was that he was alive, and back with him.

"I do have something I want to give you as an apology for this," Rubicante said, bringing out a folded cloth. It looked similar to his cloak. "From me, but it's also from the Fire Crystal. Even back when I didn't want to express my true feelings for you, I wanted to craft you a sword as a gift, something that would suit you perfectly. But I was never satisfied with what I made. Plus, the weapons you brought back from the moon are difficult to match as they already suit you well. In working on Excalipur, though, I began to feel that you would do better with something to protect you. Maybe it would have been better if I could have given it to you sooner, but no matter. It will keep you safe now."

What could Edge do for him? Rubicante had already done so much. He could marry him and make him a queen, seeing to it that he was happy for the rest of their lives together. Maybe it would surprise everyone else, but what they thought didn't matter. This happiness he had now was what mattered and he didn't want it to end.

* * *

The monsters died and the beach of Besaid was calm and peaceful once again. Still, Tidus checked around to make sure. There really wasn't much going on these days. He'd patrol around the island with the other guys to make sure the majority of the villagers weren't troubled. Then, he'd practice his swordplay or Blitzball, whatever the day seemed good for. It was good that the troubled days of living under Sin were gone. But sometimes, the peace got a little boring.

But this day was determined not to be boring.

While he was looking over the waves and considering if calling the team out was worth it, a strange tear appeared right in the middle of the air. An eerie starry darkness lay past it, not quite the night sky although that was the closet thing to what was there. After a moment, two men came out and looked around while the tear fixed itself back up. They were an odd pair, especially the one who was brandishing seven different swords on his body.

"Wow, this place is gorgeous," the more normal one said, smiling as he turned to look over the ocean.

But the other man looked right to Tidus. No, not exactly. He looked right to Tidus' sword. He had Brotherhood today, an old gift from Wakka that he wasn't about to let go. The tip of it seemed to blend right in with the ocean tides.

"You have it," the strange one said, coming right over. "Amazing, you have the water sword I've been searching for in over a dozen worlds now! Incredible! Where'd you get it? Do they come up for sale often? And how's it handle?"

"H-hey!" Tidus said, backing off and not sure what to make of him.

"Now don't be scaring the locals again, Gilgamesh," the other man said, smiling as he glanced over but not helping any more than that.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just so exciting to finally find what I'm searching for!"

"So, who're you guys?" Tidus asked, trying to act like everything was normal so that it felt normal.

Gilgamesh laughed, enthused for a chance to introduce themselves. This would certainly not be a boring day.


End file.
